International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan announced on Monday his intention to complete his investigation into crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Libya since the beginning of 2011 by the end of 2025.
Presenting his periodic report to the UN Security Council, the prosecutor said “significant progress” had been made over the past 18 months, in particular thanks to the better cooperation of the Libyan authorities.
“Our work is proceeding at a faster pace in order to meet the legitimate expectations of the Libyan Council and its people,” he said.
In the past six months, his teams have been able to carry out 18 missions in three regions of Libya and collect 800 evidence, including visual and audio documents, he said.
“We have reached a crucial moment that allows the announcement of a roadmap towards ending the investigation phase” in court, he said.
The roadmap provides for the closure of the investigation phase by the end of 2025.
“Of course it won’t be easy,” he said, but “I hope this period will allow for new requests for arrest warrants.”
“The goal is to execute arrest warrants and apply a preliminary procedure before the court in relation to at least one arrest warrant by the end of 2025.”
The Security Council submitted the situation in Libya to the International Criminal Court in February 2011, after the start of protests that ended with the intervention of NATO and the overthrow of the rule of the late President Muammar Gaddafi.
The investigation, opened by the court in March 2011, has so far led to three cases linked to crimes against humanity and war crimes.
While many cases were abandoned after the suspects’ deaths, an arrest warrant is currently pending for Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the former Libyan leader.
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