Israel’s killing of journalist is a challenge for the ICC, legal expert says 

The murder of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli occupation forces had put the International Criminal Court (ICC) ahead of a big challenge, a legal expert said yesterday.

“Silence of the ICC’s Public Prosecutor and his inaction to get the evidence and ask Israel to hand over the murderers is something strange,” the legal expert said in a paper prepared by Jordanian international law specialist Mustafa Nasrallah.

He stated that the ICC’s Public Prosecutor has the right, according to the Rome Statute, to “immediately” move ahead of investigating the murder of the journalist in order to prosecute the murderers.

Nasrallah, the head of the Jordanian Association for Human Rights, called for the ICC’s Prosecutor to return honour to the international tribunal by prosecuting the “Zionist murderers” and taking measures against them for their “continuous crimes against the Palestinians.”

“Inaction against the Israeli occupation forces,” Nasrallah said, “encourages them to continue their crimes against the Palestinians.”

Citing several international reports by human rights organisations and UN bodies and officials, Nasrallah stressed that Abu Akleh’s killers “are Israelis.”

He stressed that the Israeli requests to get the bullets which killed Abu Akleh to check whether it was shot by the Israeli occupation forces or Palestinian fighters was a ruse aimed at confusing the international community.

“The Israeli investigation into the murder of the journalist is not credible because it will automatically acquit the Israeli occupation soldiers and blame the Palestinians,” he said, noting that Israel has never blamed Israeli soldiers for killing Palestinians.

READ: Israel responds to UN report accusing it of Abu Akleh killing