ICC - Election of the Prosecutor

Election of the Prosecutor

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On 21 April 2003, the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, meeting in its second resumed first session, unanimously elected , Luis Moreno Ocampo of Argentina as the first Prosecutor of the Court.

Mr. Ocampo has extensive practical experience in the prosecution and trial of criminal cases. During the last ten years he was main partner of Moreno Ocampo & Wortman Jofre, an Argentinean law firm which is amongst others, specialized in corruption control programs for large organizations, criminal and human rights law.

He has been involved in high profile public interest cases of international criminal justice, including the extradition of the former Nazi officer Mr. Erik Priebke to Italy, the trial of Chilean secret police for the murder of General Prats, political bribery cases, as well as journalists’ protection cases.

Between 1985 and 1992 Mr. Ocampo worked on a large number of public and military corruption cases. He was assistant prosecutor in the trials against the chief of the Buenos Aires Police Force, General Camps, and against the military junta that ruled Argentina during its dictatorship years.

In 1987 he was the Argentine prosecutor in the extradition process of former General Carlos Guillermo Suarez-Mason, commander of the Armed Forces in the Buenos Aires region from 1977-79 during Argentina's so called "dirty war" against suspected subversion.

In 1998 he was in charge of the trials against the military responsible for the Malvinas-Falkland war and those who headed the 1988 military rebellion.

Member of the Advisory Committee of Transparency International, a world-wide organization whose aims are to reduce corruption in international business transactions, Mr. Ocampo was President of Transparency International for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Mr. Ocampo will head the Office of the Prosecutor and is expected to take office on 16 June 2003.

The Office of the Prosecutor is one of the four organs of the International Criminal Court (article 34 ICC Statute).

The mandate of the Office is to conduct investigations and prosecutions of crimes that fall within the jurisdiction of the Court.

The Prosecutor may initiate investigations on his own or upon referral by a State Party or by the Security Council, acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations of situations in which there is a reasonable basis to believe that such crimes have been or are being committed.

The Rome Statute provides that the Prosecutor shall act independently.

Source: Office of the Prosecutor