News updates

(For older news updates, please visit our news archive.)

8 December 2023: The trial of Ousman Sonko begins today: the former Gambian Minister of Interior is accused of crimes against humanity, including torture and rape, under the rule of dictator Yayha Jammeh. This will be the second trial for such crimes in Swiss courts. 

6 December 2023: Human rights groups filed a civil complaint at The Hague District Court, arguing the Netherlands’ complicity in alleged war crimes due to its export of fighter jet components to Israel. They requested an injunction halting further exports. The verdict is expected to be delivered on the 15th of December 2023. 

1 December 2023: In Germany, Bai Lowe was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and crimes against humanity committed between 2003 and 2006. Lowe drove members of the death squad of former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh to their missions and used the car to block one victim's vehicle. This landmark decision marks the first judicial recognition of international crimes being committed during the 22-year Gambian dictatorship.  

30 November 2023: Today, the first trial in the Netherlands against a militia member linked to the Assad regime begins. The pro-regime Liwa al-Quds member faces charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and participation in an organization whose aim is to commit international crimes, due to his alleged role in the arrest and torture of civilians during the Syrian civil war. 

27 November 2023: The Paris Court of Appeal has confirmed the referral of Majdi Nema, former spokesperson for the Syrian rebel group Jaysh al-Islam (“The Army of Islam”), to a French criminal court. The charges against him include allegations of complicity in war crimes said to have occurred in Syria between 2013 and 2016. 

16 November 2023: Sosthene Munyemana, a Rwandan doctor who lived in France for decades, is now facing charges linked to his alleged involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The trial unfolding in Paris concerns allegations of genocide, crimes against humanity and complicity in these crimes. 

15 November 2023: French judges have issued international arrest warrants against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for his alleged complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity regarding chemical weapons attacks against civilians in 2013. International arrest warrants were also issued for other members of the Syrian regime, namely, Maher al-Assad, de facto leader of a military unit, along with two armed forces generals. 

9 November 2023: Investigative judges in France have indicted former warlord and Minister of Commerce Roger Lumbala Tshitenga for his alleged complicity in and conspiracy to commit crimes against humanity during the second civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (1998-2003).  

2 November 2023: The trial of Michael Correa, an alleged member of former Gambian dictator Jammeh’s paramilitary unit, has been scheduled to commence on the 16th of September 2024 in relation to charges of torture and conspiracy to commit torture. This trial will be the first in the United States under the principle of universal jurisdiction, and the third outside of The Gambia for atrocities committed during the Jammeh regime. 

27 October 2023: In Germany, the Clooney Foundation for Justice filed three cases concerning alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine, submitting evidence in relation to a series of crimes, including an indiscriminate missile attack, unlawful detention, and sexual violence. 

24 October 2023: The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine has submitted a new report to the UN General Assembly, finding new evidence that Russian authorities have committed violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law, including war crimes, in the context of the Russian aggression against Ukraine. 

20 October 2023: Investigative judges in France have issued arrest warrants against four high-ranking Syrian military officials, including two former Defence ministers, for complicity in war crimes related to a 2017 bombing in Daraa, Syria, which resulted in the death of French-Syrian national Salah Abou Nabout.

19 October 2023: The ICC Prosecutor has withdrawn all charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against Maxime Mokom, alleged former National Coordinator of Operations of the Anti-Balaka militia in the Central African Republic, citing the existent evidence and the availability of witnesses as insufficient to support reasonable prospects of conviction. 

17 October 2023: In Spain, the claim filed by former trade unionist Carles Vallejo in relation to torture allegedly committed by the police during the Franco dictatorship has been rejected, with the Barcelona court citing that the events occurred outside the statute of limitations and were covered by a 1977 amnesty law.