The Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Court (ICC) evaluated in accordance with the Rome Statute several communications about alleged crimes against humanity committed in Venezuela after the presidential elections of July 28, which could be included in its investigation, according to the 2024 report of the prosecutor’s officeKarim Khan, released this Thursday.
“The office has determined that these communications could fall within the scope of its ongoing investigation and, for now, is considering them in this context,” the report states.
Nicolás Maduro was proclaimed winner of the presidential elections, but the opposition, which published copies of the minutes kept by its table witnesses, denounced fraud and attributed the victory to former candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, currently in “forced” exile in Spain.
Part of the international community has not recognized Maduro as the winner and has called for independent verification of the results that caused protests that left 28 people dead and more than 2,400 detained.
The most recent report from the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela (FFM) warned that human rights violations in the country have worsened after the elections.
In 2021, the ICC prosecutor’s office announced its decision to open a formal investigation into Venezuela for alleged crimes against humanity and signed a memorandum of understanding with the State based on the principle of positive complementarity established in the Rome Statute.
The investigation covers, among others, cases of murders, torture, extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances, persecution and excessive use of force in the context of anti-government demonstrations since April 2017.
The Maduro government has assured that it seeks to “instrumentalize” international criminal justice mechanisms for political purposes and maintains that the alleged crimes against humanity “have never occurred.”
Earlier this week, Khan called for the release of minors detained in Venezuela after the elections, and questioned the lack of implementation of best judicial practices.
The Venezuelan government described his statements as “misguided.”
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