The household of killed Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh has submitted an official grievance to the Worldwide Prison Court docket (ICC) to demand justice for her dying.
Abu Akleh, who was with Al Jazeera for 25 years and often called the “voice of Palestine”, was shot within the head and killed by Israeli forces on Could 11 whereas she was protecting a military raid within the Jenin refugee camp within the occupied West Financial institution.
She was carrying a flak jacket and helmet that clearly recognized her as a member of the press. Al Jazeera producer Ali al-Samoudi, who was standing close to her together with a bunch of Palestinian journalists, was additionally shot within the again however recovered.
Talking in entrance of the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands, on Tuesday, Abu Akleh’s brother Anton mentioned that they’d do no matter was mandatory to make sure accountability for her killing.
“Like we mentioned earlier than, and like different reviews mentioned beforehand, there have been greater than 16 photographs fired in the direction of Shireen and the media and her colleagues who had been standing in that ally,” Anton Abu Akleh mentioned. “They even focused the one who was attempting to tug her into security after she was shot down.”
He went on to say that the Israeli troopers had been in a position to determine who Abu Akleh was.
“She was in full gear, and he or she was clearly famous as press,” he mentioned. “Any individual capturing on the press is deliberately attempting to kill them.”
The ICC determined in 2021 that it has jurisdiction over violence and warfare crimes which have occurred within the occupied Palestinian territories.
“That’s why there’s some hope right here by Palestinian journalists and the federal government that there will probably be a begin into the investigation right here into these circumstances, together with the case of Shireen Abu Akleh,” Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen mentioned, talking at The Hague.
The grievance is supported by the Palestinian Press Syndicate and the Worldwide Federation of Journalists (IFJ).
Jim Boumhelha, the previous president of the IFJ, mentioned it was a “historic day” not only for Abu Akleh’s household, however for Palestinian journalists who’ve been on the receiving finish of assaults by Israeli forces.
“We do hope that folks contained in the prosecution will take very critically the doc that now we have given them,” he advised Al Jazeera. “That is the primary stage, and we’re going via the motions.”
Right this moment my household is on the Worldwide Prison Court docket to submit a proper grievance, calling on the worldwide neighborhood to research Israel’s killing of my aunt Shireen Abu Akleh, and ship accountability and justice the place others have failed. Our household assertion beneath 👇 pic.twitter.com/uMWRCLR49d
— Lina Abu Akleh (@LinaAbuAkleh) September 20, 2022
Final April, a coalition of the IFJ, the Palestinian Press Syndicate, and main human rights attorneys submitted the primary grievance to the ICC over the systematic concentrating on of Palestinian journalists.
Boumhelha mentioned that pursuing justice for Palestinian journalists inside Israeli courts has by no means labored, as a result of lack of an trustworthy and credible due course of.
“Each single case that a few of the journalists took to Israeli courtroom got here to nothing,” he mentioned. “That is a world courtroom, which is within the arms of all of the international locations and all of the individuals on the earth.”
In late Could, Al Jazeera filed a case on the ICC to deal with the killing of Abu Akleh.
‘We’d like a US and ICC investigation’
Abu Akleh was additionally a United States citizen, however President Joe Biden – who has snubbed the household’s request for a face-to-face assembly twice – and his administration have refused to conduct an unbiased investigation.
“Plainly the rationale her case has not been a precedence for the US authorities is due to who she was and who she was killed by,” Anton Abu Akleh mentioned. “There isn’t any thriller relating to what occurred to Shireen aside from the precise identify and id of her killer.”
Anton referred to the a number of investigations carried out by the United Nations, Israeli and Palestinian human rights organisations, and main information shops which concluded that Abu Akleh was killed by an Israeli soldier.
“Israel can’t examine their very own crimes and it’s time for the worldwide neighborhood to take a stance and maintain these accountable accountable,” he mentioned. “We’d like a US and ICC investigation to carry Israel accountable.”
In early September, Israeli authorities mentioned that there was a “excessive risk” that its forces had killed Abu Akleh, however mentioned it will not be launching a prison investigation.
One of many Abu Akleh household’s attorneys, Jennifer Robinson, advised the media that the ICC should finish Israel’s impunity.
“There’s been no unbiased investigation and this investigation and the prosecution of these accountable for Shireen Abu Akleh’s dying will present deterrence for the concentrating on of journalists sooner or later,” she mentioned.
“The killing of journalists is an try and cowl up and stop their work in documenting human rights abuse and fosters impunity for the injustices that they’re in search of to cowl.”