A personal attorney of President Donald Trump plans to block efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to open an investigation into US war crimes overseas.
This comes as the ICC’s chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda is set to make a second request to launch a full war crimes probe this week after her first request was rejected by ICC judges in April.
Bensouda will reassert her case to launch a formal inquiry during three days of hearings before a panel of appeals judges in the Hague to examine atrocities committed by US forces during the Afghan conflict between 2003 and 2004.
Preliminary evidence suggests that CIA agents mentally and physically abused detainees in Afghanistan during the period.
This time, one of the president’s personal lawyers, Jay Sekulow, said on Twitter he would testify to challenge the move.
In response to the ICC’s move, Washington has revoked travel visas for its personnel.
Trump has previously denounced the ICC, criticizing its “broad, unaccountable, prosecutorial powers.”
The US president has repeatedly intervened in the military disciplinary system to grant clemency to service members convicted of war crimes overseas.
In the latest case, Trump, on November 15, reversed the punishment handed down to Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher who was accused of war crimes. The president said Gallagher had been “treated very badly” by the Navy, and then ordered that he not be dismissed from the elite force.
Several former commanders and current senior officers have expressed concerns in recent days about how Trump’s actions are corroding the integrity of the US armed forces.
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