News updates
(For older news updates, please visit our news archive)
7 August 2025: The Higher Court in Podgorica, Montenegro, has sentenced Slobodan Peković (also known as Slobodan Čurčić) to 20 years of imprisonment for the war crimes of sexual violence and murder, committed in 1992 in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
6 August 2025: The ICC Pre-Trial Chamber has stated that Hungary failed to comply with its international obligations under the Rome Statute by not adhering to the Court’s request to provisionally arrest Mr. Netanyahu while he was in Hungary.
5 August 2025: The ICC's Appeal Chamber has reduced Mr. Al Hassan’s original sentence of 10 years by 12 months to ensure a realistic prospect of resocialization. In 2024, Mr. Al Hassan was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Timbuktu, Mali.
4 August 2025: The ICC's Trial Chamber V has found Alfred Yekatom and Patrice-Edouard Ngaïssona guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Bangui and the West of the Central African Republic. Mr. Yekatom has been sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment, and Mr. Ngaïssona to 12 years.
1 August 2025: The Stockholm District Court has sentenced Osama Krayem to life imprisonment for his participation in the killing of a Jordanian Pilot in 2014-2015 by the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria. Due to his involvement, Osama Krayem has been found guilty of committing war crimes and terrorism.
30 July 2025: The United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals has rejected Ratko Mladic’s request for early release on the grounds of poor health and limited life expectancy.
29 July 2025: Brazil has announced that it will join South Africa, Colombia, Libya and Mexico, in the case against Israel regarding alleged genocide before the International Court of Justice.
21 July 2025: The International Criminal Court has announced the arrest of Mr. Khaled Mohamed Ali El Hishri by authorities of the Federal Republic of Germany pursuant to an arrest warrant issued by the ICC in the scope the Situation in Libya.
15 July 2025: The Court of Appeals Panel in the case of the Specialist Prosecutor v. Pjetër Shala has reduced Mr. Shala’s sentence by five years. Mr. Shala had been found guilty of the war crimes of arbitrary detention, torture and murder in 2024.
10 July 2025: The former police chief of Bangladesh has pleaded guilty to crimes against humanity committed between July and August 2024 before Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal.
9 July 2025: ICC Pre-Trial Chamber II has issued arrest warrants for Mr. Haibatullah Akhundzada, Supreme Leader of the Taliban, and Mr. Abdul Hakim Haqqani, Chief Justice of the Taliban, relating to the charge of the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds.
8 July 2025: A court in El Salvador has sentenced three former military commanders to 30 years of imprisonment for the killing of four Dutch journalists in 1982 during the conflict in El Salvador.
2 July 2025: The International Criminal Court recently detected a targeted cybersecurity threat. According to the Court, it has now been contained and will be investigated further.
25 June 2025: President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Alain Berset, have signed an agreement on the establishment of a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine. The Statute of the Tribunal has now been made public.
23 June 2025: The Special Criminal Court has sentenced six rebel leaders to imprisonment for war crimes committed in N’délé, Central African Republic, in 2020.
18 June 2025: The Frankfurt Higher Regional Court has sentenced Mr. Alaa Mousa to life imprisonment for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria.
11 June 2025: The ICC's Appeals Chamber has confirmed that the Prosecutor v. Joseph Kony case can proceed with the suspect in absentia.
6 June 2025: The United States has placed sanctions on four ICC judges. Two of the sanctioned judges authorised the issue of arrest warrants for Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr. Yoav Gallant. The other two sanctioned judges authorised an investigation into alleged crimes by US personnel in Afghanistan.
6 June 2025: On 24 July 2025, Trial Chamber V of the International Criminal Court will deliver its judgement in The Prosecutor v. Alfred Yekatom and Patrice-Edouard Ngaïssona. Yetakom and Ngaïssona were both charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in the territory of the Central African Republic between December 2013 and August 2014.
4 June 2025: A former Rwandan radio journalist, Mr. Bicamumpaka, was recently detained and charged in France for genocide and complicity in crimes against humanity allegedly carried out during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.
New cases, briefs and videos
(For older announcements, please visit our announcements archive)
NEW CASE: The Prosecutor v. Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud case before the International Criminal Court (November 2024) can now be accessed online. The case summary can be accessed here.
NEW VIDEO: A new video is available online. On 10 June 2025, the T.M.C. Asser Instituut organised a Handbook launch of the Global Rights Compliance 'Practitioners’ Handbook on Extraterritorial or Universal Jurisdiction to Pursue Accountability for International Crimes Committed in Ukraine'. The Handbook was developed under GRC’s project Support to Ukrainian National Prosecutors and CSOs in Building Strategic Cases under Universal Jurisdiction and is part of the ‘Restoring Dignity and Justice in Ukraine’ consortium programme. The Handbook Launch can be accessed here.
NEW VIDEO: A new video is available online. On 4 June 2025, the T.M.C. Asser Instituut organised a panel discussion titled "The crime of aggression: legal developments and accountability efforts". The event featured Andriy Kostin, Dr Kateryna Busol, Prof. Dr Frank Hoffmeister, Dr Anton Korynevych, Myroslava Krasnoborova, and Prof. Dr Karolina Wierczyńska. It can be accessed here.
NEW VIDEO: A new video is available online. On 9 April 2025, the T.M.C. Asser Instituut organised the event "Innovative ways to counter terrorism: the role of transitional justice". This conference was co-organised with Queen’s University Belfast, and featured Prof. Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, Prof. Richard English, Prof. Josefina Echavarría Álvarez, Prof. Chris Maccabe, Prof. Cheryl Lawther, Dr Lina Malagon Diaz, Dr Beatriz Mayans Hermida, and Judge Catalina Díaz Gómez. It can be accessed here.
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.
