The United States have sanctioned two russian military officials for their "involvement in gross violations of human rights" in Ukraine. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken imposed visa restrictions on Russian Armed Forces Col. Azatbek Omurbekov, also known as “The Butcher of Bucha,” and Guard Corporal Daniil Frolkin. They were sanctioned for involvement in the extrajudicial killings of civilians from Andriivka, Ukraine “As a result of today’s action, Omurbekov, Frolkin, and their immediate family members are ineligible for entry into the United States,” the top US diplomat said. Omurbekov was...
Nearly 20,000 men have fled Ukraine since the outbreak of war to avoid being drafted. The BBC reports that Another 21,113 men attempted to flee but were caught by the Ukrainian authorities. After Russia's invasion, most men aged 18-60 were banned from leaving. But data obtained by the BBC reveals dozens have made it out daily. The BBC has established - by requesting data of illegal border crossings from neighbouring Romania, Moldova, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia - that 19,740 men illegally crossed into these countries between February 2022 and 31 August 2023. The majority - 14,313 - were...
A group of lawyers representing Palestinian victims of Israeli attacks on Gaza have filed a complaint to the International Criminal Court (ICC), arguing that Israel’s actions amount to the crime of genocide. Gilles Devers, a veteran French lawyer and the victims’ representative before the ICC, submitted the complaint to the prosecutor as part of a four-person delegation in the Dutch city of The Hague last Monday. The civil society initiative could result in arrest warrants being issued against top Israeli politicians, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu . “It is clear for me that...
Grave violations committed by Israel against Palestinians in the aftermath of 7 October, particularly in Gaza, point to a genocide in the making, UN experts said last week. They illustrated evidence of increasing genocidal incitement, overt intent to “destroy the Palestinian people under occupation”, loud calls for a ‘second Nakba’ in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory, and the use of powerful weaponry with inherently indiscriminate impacts, resulting in a colossal death toll and destruction of life-sustaining infrastructure. “Many of us already raised the alarm about the...
South Africa has filed a referral to the International Criminal Court for an investigation into war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza. “As South Africa we have accordingly, together with many other countries across the world, referred this whole Israeli government action to the International Criminal Court,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Wednesday during a state visit to Qatar. “We have put through a referral because we believe that war crimes are being committed there. And of course we do not condone the actions that were taken by Hamas earlier, but similarly we condemn...
A French court has issued an international arrest warrant for the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for complicity in war crimes against humanity linked to a chemical weapons attack. Three others – including Assad’s brother Maher, head of an elite army unit – are also subject to warrants over the use of banned sarin gas in two attacks in August 2013 that killed more than 1,000 people, including hundreds of children. .The move was a major step to hold Mr. al-Assad and his circle accountable for some of the worst atrocities committed in the yearslong Syria conflict. In the absence of any...
The European Union has condemned an escalation of violence in the Darfur region, situated in Sudan, warning of "another genocide". The EU's chief diplomat Josep Borrell cited in a statement witness reports that more than 1,000 members of the Masalit community were killed in Ardamta, West Darfur, in just over two days earlier this week during attacks by the RSF and affiliated militias. "These latest atrocities are seemingly part of a wider ethnic cleansing campaign conducted by the RSF with the aim to eradicate the non-Arab Masalit community from West Darfur, and comes on top of the first wave...
Pakistan on Monday opened three new border crossings to accelerate the repatriation of undocumented Afghan nationals who have been ordered to leave the country or face expulsion, officials said. The new crossings were set up at the Afghan border in southwestern Balochistan province in addition to the main crossing in Chaman district, said Jan Achakzai, information minister for the provincial caretaker government. The main crossing had been overwhelmed with Afghan refugees seeking to return home voluntarily, he said. More than 280,000 Afghan nationals have left Pakistan since the new policy...
Five judges at the supreme court unanimously upheld an appeal court ruling that found there was a real risk of deported refugees having their claims in the east African country wrongly assessed or being returned to their country of origin to face persecution. In the summary provided by the president of the court, Lord Reed, extensive reference was made to the other legal obligations that would prevent the UK from removing asylum seekers to a third country where there was a real risk that they could be returned to their country of origin without their application being properly addressed. This...
Luis Moreno Ocampo has called Isarel's blockade of Gaza as a "crime against humanity and a genocide. Speaking to BBC Newsday the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court condemned the attacks by Hamas and Israel's blockade of Gaza. He said, “Hamas’s attack on October 7 is clearly a crime against humanity… Because killings with the intention to strike a group is a genocide, and Hamas’s official intention is to strike Israelis,” he told the BBC's Newsday programme. “It's a war crime, because taking hostages is a war crime,” he added. Mr Moreno-Ocampo also referred to Israel’s...