News updates
(For older news updates, please visit our news archive)
30 April 2025: Last week, the ICC Appeals Chamber overturned Pre-Trial Chamber I's rejection of Israel’s request to suspend arrest warrants on the basis that the Court lacked jurisdiction. As such, the Appeals Chamber has referred the matter back to Pre-Trial Chamber I.
29 April 2025: Majdi Nema, a former spokesperson for an armed rebel group in Syria, has gone on trial in France on allegations of war crimes.
16 April 2025: Michael Sang Correa, a Gambian national, has been found guilty by a US federal court of five counts of torture and one count of conspiracy to commit torture. Correa's crimes were carried while serving in the Junglers, a Gambian military unit accused of numerous international crimes.
11 April 2025: Today, the Trust Fund for Victims, together with the Government of Côte d’Ivoire, held a commemorative ceremony for the victims of crimes against humanity committed between March and April 2011 in Côte d’Ivoire.
8 April 2025: A Gambian man accused of torture, Michael Sang Correa, has gone on trial in a US federal court in Denver, Colorado. Correa was an alleged former member of the Junglers, a military unit accused of numerous international crimes.
14 March 2025: A Finnish court has sentenced a Russian national, Vojislav Torden, to life imprisonment in relation to four war crimes carried out in Ukraine in 2014. At the time, the individual was the commander of a Russian neo-Nazi paramilitary group.
11 March 2025: Rodrigo Duterte, former President of the Republic of the Philippines, has been arrested in Manila reportedly following the issuing of an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity committed during his "war on drugs".
12 February 2025: A Swedish court has found a 52-year old Swedish woman guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes for her treatment of Yazidi children and women in Syria in 2015 and sentenced her to 12 years in prison.
11 February 2025: The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim A. A. Khan KC, has been sanctioned by the U.S. following President Trump's creation of an Executive Order "Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court".
4 February 2025: The creation of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine has just been announced. The court will be created within the context of the Council of Europe and will seek to try Russian military and political leaders for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.
24 January 2025: The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has applied for arrest warrants to be issued against two individuals in the situation in Afghanistan for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds.
23 January 2025: Italian authorities arrested Osama Elmasry Njeem, subject to an International Criminal Court arrest warrant (under seal) for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, in Turin on 19 January. However, authorities later stated that it had released and returned the individual to Libya based on a procedural irregularity during his arrest.
22 January 2025: The Swedish Public Prosecution Service has requested Belgium to extradite a Swedish national accused of committing war crimes and terrorist crimes in Syria in 2014. He is currently serving a 30-year sentence in Belgium for involvement in terrorist attacks in Paris (November 2015) and Brussels (March 2016).
20 January 2025: Several individuals have gone on trial in Azerbaijan on charges of war crimes and genocide, among other crimes, relating to the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Armenia has challenged the fairness and validity of the proceedings.
7 January 2025: The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has approved the establishment of "The Special Tribunal for The Gambia": a hybrid criminal tribunal envisioned to adjudicate international crimes allegedly committed in The Gambia between 1994 and 2017.
11 December 2024: A Dutch court has found a woman guilty of the crime against humanity of slavery committed in Syria against a Yazidi woman. She was also found guilty of other crimes, including membership of a terrorist group, and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
10 December 2024: A U.S. court has unsealed an indictment against two former Syrian intelligence officials for war crimes allegedly carried out at the Mezzeh Prison between 2012-2019.
5 December 2024: A Russian national has gone on trial in Finland for war crimes allegedly committed in the Donbas region of Ukraine between 2014-2015.
New cases, briefs and videos
(For older announcements, please visit our announcements archive)
NEW VIDEO: A new video is available online. On 4 February 2025, the T.M.C. Asser Instituut organised the event "Sights, sounds, and sensibilities of atrocity prosecutions: the sensory experience of justice". This lecture, which is part of the Benjamin Ferencz Lecture Series, featured Prof. Mark A. Drumbl (Washington and Lee University), Prof. Caroline Fournet (University of Exeter), Prof. Barbora Hola (VU Amsterdam), and Simon Meisenberg (Kosovo Specialist Chambers), and was co-organised with the IHCL Platform. It can be accessed here.
NEW VIDEO: A new video is available online. On 21 January 2025, the T.M.C. Asser Instituut organised the event "Tackling the unlawful deportation and transfer of children from Ukraine to Russia: Pathways to accountability". This lecture, which is part of the Benjamin Ferencz Lecture Series, featured Ms Viktoriia Pasik, Dr Marieke de Hoon (University of Amsterdam), Deniz Dirisu (OSINT for Ukraine), and Natalia Jasztal (OSINT for Ukraine), and was co-organised with the Embassy of Ukraine in The Hague and the IHCL Platform. It can be accessed here.
NEW VIDEO: A new video is available online. On 2 October 2024, the T.M.C. Asser Instituut organised the event "The principle of ne bis in idem in international criminal law". This lecture, which is part of the Benjamin Ferencz Lecture Series, featured Dr Gaiane Nuridzhanian, Professor Roger O’Keefe, Marie O’Leary and Teodora Jugrin and was co-organised with the IHCL Platform. It can be accessed here.
NEW VIDEO: A new video is available online. On 11 July 2024, the T.M.C. Asser Instituut organised a joint DILEMA-HILAC lecture entitled "Natural and artificial intelligence in armed conflict: Exploring Settled and Open Legal Questions". The lecture featured Dustin A. Lewis (HLS PILAC) and can be accessed here.
NEW CASE: The Eyad Al-Gharib Case before the Higher Regional Court of Koblenz (February 2021) can now be accessed online. This latest addition is the first decision against a former agent of the Syrian Government regarding the government-led crimes against humanity in Syria. The Higher Regional Court case can be accessed here.
NEW VIDEO: A new video is available online. On 29 May 2024, the T.M.C. Asser Instituut, in collaboration with the Ukrainian Embassy in the Netherlands, organised an SCL Lecture entitled "The Register of Damage for Ukraine: Towards reparation for victims?". The lecture featured Markiyan Kliuchkovskyi, Dr. Kustrim Istrefi, Victoria Kerr, and Olesia Zaiets, and can be accessed here.
NEW CASE: The Al Bahlul Case before the U.S. District of Columbia Courts of Appeal (Opinion by Circuit Judge PAN, July 2023) can now be accessed online. This latest addition sheds light on the issue of providing material support for terrorism. The Opinion by Circuit Judge PAN can be accessed here.
NEW CASE: The Al Mahdi Case before the International Criminal Court (Trial Chamber VIII, September 2016) has just been updated and is now available online. This latest addition sheds light on the destruction of cultural heritage during armed conflict. The Trial Chamber VIII case can be accessed here.
NEW CASE: The Bemba Case before the International Criminal Court (Trial Chamber III, March 2016) has just been updated and is now available online. This latest addition sheds light on war crimes, crimes against humanity and command responsibility. The Trial Chamber III case can be accessed here.
NEW CASE: Case analysis of the First Instance and the Appeals Judgment in the Ahmad al-Y case (the Hague District Court, April 2021 and the Hague Court of Appeal, December 2022) is now available online. This latest addition sheds light on terrorist organizations and war crimes. They can be accessed here and here accordingly.
NEW VIDEO: A new video is available online. On 19 December 2023, the T.M.C. Asser Instituut organised the Supranational Criminal Law (SCL) Lecture titled "Navigating the International Legal Landscape of the Israel-Palestine Conflict", featuring Prof. Terry Gill, Prof. Helen Duffy and Yousuf Syed Khan J.D. LL.M. The video is available here.
NEW VIDEO: A new video is available online. On 21 September 2023, the T.M.C. Asser Instituut organised the Supranational Criminal Law (SCL) Lecture titled "Pursuing Accountability for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine", featuring H.E. Mr. Oleksandr Karasevych, Dr. Anton Korynevych, Prof. Larissa van den Herik, Prof. André Nollkaemper, Dr. Astrid Reisinger Coracini and Dr. Owiso Owiso. This specific SCL Lecture was co-organised by the IHCL Platform and the Embassy of Ukraine in The Hague and supported by The Hague Municipality. The video is available here.
