Judges of Appeal of the International Criminal Court (ICC) On Friday they rejected Venezuela’s appeal against reopening the investigation. about alleged human rights violations committed by Venezuelan government officials that may constitute crimes against humanity.

The ICC Appeals Chamber rejected the grounds of appeal presented by the government of Nicolás Maduro, which assured last November that ‘Crimes against humanity have never occurred’ in Venezuelabut “several incidents” that Caracas is already investigating in national courts and does not need international justice for this.

Last year, Caracas appealed the decision to reopen the investigation. arguing that its processing should activate the principle of complementarityunder which the court can only intervene if the country is not already investigating the same alleged crimes.

“Appeal Chamber rejects the appeal and confirms the appealed decision” Judge Marc Perrin de Brichambaut read today, unanimously rejecting, one after another, six arguments presented by Caracas against the decision to authorize the resumption of the investigation.

On Friday, appeal judges unanimously rejected all grounds of appeal and gave green light for ICC prosecutor to reopen investigation about abuse.

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In November 2021, the prosecution announced the opening of a formal investigation following the completion of a preliminary investigation initiated based on a 2018 complaint from Peru, Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Chile and Paraguay, which They condemned crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Venezuela. from February 12, 2014

However, in April 2022 Caracas asked to postpone the ICC investigation in favor of the Venezuelan authoritieswho will continue the investigation.

Some seven months later, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan asked the court’s Pre-Trial Chamber to allow him to reopen the investigation, given that Caracas is not taking sufficient measures in this matterpermission, which he received in June last year.

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Last November, the ICC held hearings in which Venezuelan Foreign Minister Iván Gil assured that national justice is already carrying out its processes and noted that “more than 255 government agents have been charged, 64 indicted and 62 convicted” for what he called “cases of human rights violations which are of interest” to the ICC.

“In Venezuela they took every single thing independent investigations and responding to evidence obtained in each of the cases. What can never be intended is this that Venezuela is artificially constructing unfounded accusations against certain targets, simply to satisfy the demands of certain internal and external players,” Gil added.

To these arguments, the prosecutor replied that His research is at a “preliminary stage.” and “it is unreasonable that he can identify” the suspects or “establish the real scope” of the case, thereby rejecting the position of Caracas, which denied the legal and substantive validity of the request to reopen the investigation.

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The Venezuelan government has opponents are accused of manipulating some cases of human rights violations under the government of President Nicolas Maduro. Authorities say they are already investigating allegations of abuse and that no crimes against humanity occurred on a large scale.

In 2020, Khan stated that there is good reason to believe that government and military officials committed crimes against humanity in Venezuela since 2017. Protesters held months of anti-government demonstrations that year, a period marked allegations of torture, arbitrary arrests and abuses by security forces. As a result of the protests, 125 people died.

Thanks to the ICC decision, the prosecutor TOArim Khan will be able to continue searching for evidence alleged crimes against humanity.

(according to information from EFE And Reuters)