The International Criminal Court (ICC) has sought Bangladesh’s observation about whether it has the jurisdiction to hear matters on ‘alleged deportation of Rohingyas’.
The ICC pre-trial chamber sent a request to Bangladesh on May 7 and requested a public or confidential written response by Jun 8.
“We received the request and will look into it,” Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque told the Bangle Tribune.
The ICC request stipulates, “Bangladesh has been particularly affected by the events concerning the alleged deportation of Rohingya people from Myanmar. Accordingly, the Chamber considers it appropriate to seek observations from the competent authorities of Bangladesh on the Prosecutor’s Request.”
The court sought observation on three issues.
The first one was about the situation of Rohingya people who fled to Bangladesh; the second one was the possibility of the Court’s exercise of territorial jurisdiction over the alleged deportation of Rohingya; and the third one was any other matter in connection with the prosecutor’s request.
On April 9, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda submitted a petition before the ICC to seek its ruling whether it had territorial jurisdiction over the alleged deportation of Rohingya from Myanmar to Bangladesh.
The ICC formed a pre-trial chamber comprised of three judges on April 11.
It is difficult to try Myanmar at the ICC as it does not recognize the court.
More than one million Rohingyas fled the state of Rakhine due to atrocities committed by Myanmar army.