The Hague Court rejects Venezuela’s appeal against the investigation into a bloody crackdown

The International Criminal Court rejected this Friday an appeal by Venezuela against the investigation into the bloody repression of opponents in 2017, with more than one hundred deaths, described by the complainants as “Crimes against humanity”.

Venezuela asked the court in August 2022 to do so suspended its investigations on alleged human rights violations during the demonstrations. Caracas argued that the issue should be resolved in its own judicial system.

In June 2023, the ICC judges authorized the court’s attorney general, Karim Khan, to resume the investigation, arguing that, in their opinion, Venezuela does not appear to have investigated the complaints.

Caracas appealed in November and representatives of the Maduro government argued that Venezuela I couldn’t investigate appropriately Khan’s accusations because the prosecution’s information was inaccurate.

“The Appeals Chamber rejects the appeal and confirms the contested decision,” reported Judge Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, magistrate of the Hague court, maintaining that “no convincing reasons were found to depart from the sentence” already released.

The investigation focuses on complaints relating to the repression of demonstrations triggered by the arrest of several opposition leaders and Supreme Court decisions aimed at gag the National Assembly (Parliament) where the opposition had the majority.

This Friday Venezuela denounced a “Unfounded decision“by the ICC” which tries to hide the truth about Venezuela, in a clear case of political exploitation against the country”, said Vice President Delcy Rodríguez.

“The entire maneuver was built starting from the manipulation of a small set of crimes that (…) have been or are being investigated and sanctioned by (…) the Venezuelan judicial system,” the Foreign Ministry added in a statement.

They applaud the sentence

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court instead applauded the ruling, which confirms that “the Venezuelan government’s national criminal procedures do not sufficiently reflect the scope of the investigation” envisaged by his office.

The Venezuelan human rights NGO Supply stated on the same platform that both she and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) applaud the decisionunderlining “its great relevance in a climate of impunity” and “persecution of human rights defenders”.

In the same line, Human Rights Watch believed that the court’s ruling “It is a ray of hope for the victims of the systematic violations of human rights by the Maduro government.

In 2018, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Canada reported the situation in Venezuela to the ICC and The court has started a preliminary investigation.

In November 2021, Prosecutor Khan opened a formal investigation and then signed an agreement with Maduro in which Venezuela was busy to ensure that the court can function properly in the country.

Meanwhile, the Venezuelan justice system has charged and convicted more than 200 law enforcement officers for the deaths of protesters during the 2017 demonstrations and other human rights violations, but government opponents believe these measures have been taken exclusively for avoid a trial before the ICC.

The ICC, created in 2002, is the only independent tribunal in the world established to investigate the most serious crimes, such as genocides, war crimes and crimes against humanity.