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PFLP urges Abbas to hasten accession to ICC

September 12, 2014 at 11:24 am

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) has called for the accession to the International Criminal Court and Rome Statute to be hastened and urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to stop stalling. They also stressed that joining the ICC is a demand of all Palestinians and should not be used as a bargaining chip.

PFLP official Jameel Mazhar made exclusive statements to Arabi 21 saying that joining the ICC is important and necessary and could not be delayed or bargained, adding “we support hastening accession to the ICC and the Rome Statute in order to pursue the leaders of our criminal enemies and prosecute them.”

Mazhar also said that the responsibility with going forth with joining the ICC “was dependent on President Abbas’s decisions, who was waiting for all the other parties to sign. Now everyone has signed and there is nothing holding him up.”

In addition to this, Mazhar criticised the Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki’s position, who, according to Arabi 21, hindered a previous application submitted by the Palestinian minister of justice.

“We must take action at every level in order to isolate and punish Israel in a manner that achieves tangible results, and then we must call for an international conference in order to enforce the rulings of the international court,” added Mazhar.

Arabi 21 published a document issued by the ICC’s prosecution’s office which indicated that the Palestinian minister of justice submitted an application to join the ICC on July 25th and that the ICC received the application on July 30th, but the Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki visited the court in The Hague on August 5th and withdrew the application.

The chief prosecutor of the ICC pointed out that in accordance with the Rome Statute, the application to join the ICC can only be submitted by the president, foreign minister or prime minister. When the chief prosecutor asked the foreign minister if the application was approved, he refused to approve the application, which made the court consider the application to be ordinary correspondence and not an application to join the ICC.