The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Tracy Cabrera
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The International Criminal Court (ICC) has announced the assumption of new leadership, management and administration of its Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) and including the case against former president Rodrigo’ Rody’ Duterte (FPRRD) in the wake of ICC prosecutor Karim Khan’s leave of absence.
Assuming over the OTP and the litigation of Duterte’s case of crimes against humanity are deputy prosecutors Mame Mandiaye Niang of Senegal and Nazhat Shameem Khan of the Fiji Islands, who were both appointed following Khan’s temporary stepped down as the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services investigates his alleged misconduct.
“With regard to the situation in the Philippines, Deputy Prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang retains leadership over this situation and the case against Mr Rodrigo Roa Duterte,” the ICC said in an official statement covering the latest development.
“The Office of the Prosecutor reaffirms its commitment to the continued effective implementation of its mandate to deliver justice for victims of Rome Statute crimes, across all situations and cases globally,” it added.
According to the ICC website, Niang has held senior positions in the Senegalese judicial system and was prosecutor general of the Appeals Court of Saint Louis, director of Criminal Affairs and Pardons at the Senegalese Ministry of Justice, auditeur at the Senegalese Supreme Court, attached to the Prosecutor General, a trial attorney and magistrate at the Regional Tribunal of Dakar.
He has also served in various positions at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and was a regional representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Southern Africa, and a judge at the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the ICTR.
On the other hand, Khan is a diplomat and former judge who served as the Permanent Representative of Fiji to the United Nations from 2014 to 2022 and also the president of the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2021. She served as a judge of the High Court of Fiji from 1999 to 2009, the first woman to do so.