YOU WOULD THINK A LOFTY COURT

SUCH AS THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (ICC)

WOULD HAVE JUDGES OF IMPECCABLE
AND EXEMPLARY CHARACTER
HOWEVER……..Part 1
By Rick Heizman, March 4, 2020

In November 2019, the ICC judges authorized the

request by ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to
investigate alleged crimes against humanity committed
against the Rohingya people from Myanmar. In early
February, 2020, a delegation from the Office of the
Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC)
visited Bangladesh. The delegation is in Bangladesh as
part of the ongoing activities of the ICC Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) concerning the
Rohingya situation in accordance with its mandate under the Rome Statute.

By the way, note that the country of Gambia (which recently took Myanmar to the other
international court - the International Court of Justice / ICJ) announced its withdrawal from
the Rome Statute In October 2016, claiming that the court was biased. It later rescinded
its withdrawal notification.

LET’S EXAMINE THE IMPECCABLE AND EXEMPLARY CHARACTER OF ICC CHIEF

PROSECUTOR FATOU BENSOUDA (WHO IS FROM, BY THE WAY, GAMBIA)

Fatou Bensouda, then 33 years old, became a prosecutor in Banjul, the capital of Gambia, in
February 1994, five months before the coup d'état that brought Yahya Jammeh, a Muslim of
the Jola ethnic group to power. His 22-year rule in Gambia was marked by widespread
abuses, including authoritarian oppression of anti-government journalists, forced
disappearances, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, and extreme threats to LGBT
people.

His unbelievable Islamic homophobic speech included announcing that he would set laws
against homosexuals that would be "stricter than those in Iran", and that he would "cut off the
head" of any gay or lesbian person discovered in the country. In a speech to the United
Nations on September 27, 2013, Jammeh said "Homosexuality in all its forms and
manifestations which, though very evil, antihuman as well as anti-Allah, is being promoted as
a human right by some powers," who "want to put an end to human existence.” In February
2014, he also went on to disparage LGBT by saying that "As far as I am concerned, LGBT
can only stand for Leprosy, Gonorrhoea, Bacteria and Tuberculosis, all of which are
detrimental to human existence”.

1
Jammeh is accused of having stolen
millions of dollars from the country's
coffers to fund a life of luxury. After
leaving office, his assets were frozen by
many countries and he went into exile. In
addition to charges of corruption and
human rights violations, he is also
accused of having drugged, raped, and
threatened a number of young women,
including a national beauty queen.

Enough about that vile creature, let’s get back to Fatou Bensouda, and why I told you about
Yahya Jammeh.

FATOU BENSOUDA RISES TO POWER

By 1995, she was Deputy Director of Prosecutions, and promoted to Principal State Counsel
the following year. She then became Solicitor General and legal secretary to Yahya Jammeh,
reporting directly to him. And in 1998, she was appointed Attorney General and Minister of
Justice, a position she would hold for two years.

During the first six years of the dictatorship, Fatou Bensouda enjoyed a meteoric and
remarkable career to reach the highest national judicial and political positions in the field of
justice, under a regime in which the judicial system was marked by multiple and serious
violations of the law, the systematic practice of torture, the fabrication of evidence, illegal
detentions, enforced disappearances and deaths in custody.

Fatou Bensouda left her country in 2002, when she joined the International Criminal Tribunal
for Rwanda before joining the ICC two years later. Disturbingly, even though the dictatorship
is gone, she will never make the slightest criticism of the dictatorship she had served, despite
being asked to do so by the diaspora.

SOME VICTIMS, OF MANY, OF HER ACTIONS, OR INACTIONS:

BATCH SAMBA JALLOW

On October 12, 1995, at 4AM, four soldiers forcibly entered the home of Batch Samba Jallow,
a primary school headmaster. Daba Marenah, one of the heads of the feared National
Intelligence Agency (NIA), told Jallow that he would understand the reasons for his arrest
once at NIA headquarters.

Once there, Jallow had to undress before sitting in a wooden chair. "I saw them bring two
electrical chords. They connected each foot to sockets," he said.

2
With his limbs tied together, he received electric shocks to his
feet and then to his ears, nose and genitals. Another NIA
member, Baba Saho, hit him on the cheekbone with the butt of
his pistol. Taken to another room, one of his fingers was crushed.
"Give us the names we want or we continue. If you die, it’s no
problem," his torturers told him. The floor was strewn with broken
glass to aggravate injuries and pain. "All my body was cut and
bruised," he said. He was hit on the head with a gallon of ice
water. He fainted. "Sometimes I would hear something;
sometimes nothing.” He was also covered with a plastic bag
before being plunged into a bucket of water. "I didn’t know if I was
alive or dead. But what came next is the worst. I wanted to go to the restroom. I found a cup
smelling urine. They asked me to drink my urine or I die.” They pinched his nose, opened his
mouth and made him drink his urine by force.

Then the torturers came back with a knife. "They put me on the floor, naked. They said it was
time to die. They cut my body from the bottom of my buttocks down the leg.” Five days went
by, without food. "My head was hurting like nothing you can understand.” Jallow was taken in
a dump truck to the Kotu police station. Then he was transferred by NIA agents to the Fajara
barracks. There, he met about sixty inmates. Eighteen prisoners had to share a basin of food
and a gallon of water. “It was a scramble," said Jallow.

It was 32 days before they were brought before a judge. During this whole period, they were
not allowed to wash. "We were so dirty that vultures came to feed on you. Soldiers had to
come and kill them," he said. Jallow was accused of participating in a demonstration that took
place on his way to an appointment with the charity Catholic Relief Services.

The Nigerian judge who welcomed the prisoners to court was so shocked by their appearance
that he ordered them to go wash before he proceeded with the case. Back at the barracks,
the detainees met four International Red Cross delegates who interviewed them and
facilitated access to a shower. Jallow remarked, "the dirt had already cracked the skin, it was
very painful."

According to a newspaper of the time, which Jallow has carefully kept, there were 25
prisoners being charged with sedition in this case. But for six of them – including Jallow – the
crime of sedition was abandoned in favor of the more serious crime of treason.

It was Fatou Bensouda who had asked for this new charge. This cannot be forgotten.
These prisoners were now facing life imprisonment or the death penalty. And that meant that
their case must be transferred to the Supreme Court. Thirteen months passed, during which
time the detention was extended without new evidence to be shown. "She did not produce
any evidence. She said she would bring it. Up to this day. There was none. They were
trying to recruit members of the NIA to be witnesses," said Jallow.

3
Jallow's resentment is fueled by the memory of the prosecutor who was then defending the
interests of the state in whose name he was made to endure torture, inhuman conditions,
illegal detention and false accusations. "She heard that I was talking about the way we were
treated, and to have a lawyer. "She could have resigned. Many resigned, they were not willing
to be part of the regime. But she was expecting something bigger. To be a minister," he
alleged. "She is not the person who can help people in political need.”

THE BRUTAL ORDEAL OF SAINEY FAYE

Sainey Faye was arrested on the day he went to the United States
Embassy to pick up a visa form, on October 12, 1995. On the main
street, he found himself in a crowd of civilians being arrested. When
the men who would soon arrest him asked him to move away from
the American embassy to a more discreet place, he refused and
physically opposed it. His leg was broken and he was arrested.

He was transferred to NIA headquarters in Banjul. NIA's senior

officer Marenah told him that his market stall was a place for
seditious meetings. He was undressed, interrogated, beaten, and
received electric shocks all over his body, including his genitals. "Before you kill us, we will kill
you first," his torturers told him. The next day, he was subjected to further threats of
execution. He learned that his group was accused of planning to overthrow the government.
"All of us were all civilians. No weapons. No documents," he said.

It took eight months before he got a lawyer. The evidence of the alleged conspiracy
brought to the hearing by prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, he explained, consisted of the
photo of former President Dawda Jawara (overthrown in 1994 by Jammeh), as well as
another leaflet featuring the faces of junta leaders with hostile comments. That was all. His
lawyer asked if these documents were found on his client and if it was a crime to have a
photograph of the former president. Bensouda replied that it was not. But when the
lawyer asked for bail, Bensouda opposed it and invoked a security threat.

At the hearing, "one of us was taken as an example of torture. Everybody could see the
marks, nobody could deny," remembers Sainey Faye. At the end of the second hearing, the
judge ordered the release on bail. But the hope was short-lived. An hour later, the decision
was reviewed by Bensouda, and Faye returned to the prison barracks. Bensouda had
invoked a new decree authorizing a 90-day detention for security reasons.

The first Nigerian judge was replaced by a new judge, also a Nigerian. "The new judge told
Fatou Bensouda to put her house in order," said Faye. Then "the judge said she
couldn’t stay in this case. She withdrew." However, the 90-day detention was renewed
twice more. The NIA was trying to convince some members of the group to testify against
others in exchange for "gifts," said Faye. Then, after thirteen months, they were told that they
were pardoned.
4
On January 28, 2020, Batch Samba Jallow testified publicly before the Truth, Reconciliation
and Reparations Commission (TRRC) and implicated Fatou Bensouda. The Commission's
lead counsel, Essa Faal, seemed caught off guard and embarrassed. (The Truth,
Reconciliation and Reparations Commission is a truth commission in The Gambia to
investigate the Yahya Jammeh era from 1994 to 2017)

- "Who was the prosecutor in this case?” asked Essa Faal.

- “Fatou Bensouda. She was the mastermind,” replied Jallow.

- “Ah, she was the prosecutor.”

- “Yes, she was the mastermind of everything we went through.”

- “Ah... You would agree that Mrs Fatou Bensouda, if she was the prosecutor at all, would
have come at the tail end of things, at the prosecution stage of things and therefore would not
have participated in anything that happened before your prosecution. Correct?”
- “No, I don't agree.”

At the hearing, the dialogue between the victim and the lead counsel seemed to end in
disagreement about the conclusions to be drawn from Jallow's experience. It did not take
much longer for the suspicions to arise that preferential treatment or protection may be
given to Fatou Bensouda the former personal legal adviser and minister of Justice under
Gambian Dictator Yahya Jammeh.

When asked about the allegations against his former boss at the ICC, Essa Faal answered
without hesitation: "This is an unfortunate situation. The person [the witness] didn’t really
understand. They say things they don’t understand. To accuse Fatou Bensouda of being
responsible for everything that they went through would be a bit unfair.” (Unfair?!?! How about
the torture and conditions that so many endured. Did Fatou Bensouda help them?)

ESSA FAAL

Essa Faal is the incisive, impeccably prepared and willingly implacable conductor of the
TRRC public hearings that have, since January 2019, made the TRRC in the Gambia a
national event to which the public is riveted.

He is a key contributor to the success of this justice process and the credibility of its
investigations. He is also a former ephemeral member of the State Prosecutor's Office of The
Gambia in 1994. And more importantly he is a former colleague of Fatou Bensouda at the
International Criminal Court.

In his Spartan office at the Commission's headquarters, Essa Faal spoke with conviction
about the TRRC's mission. "Forgiveness is important. It is a more assured way to get to the
truth," he explained. (In the case of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi also emphasizes
forgiveness - but, not hiding truth nor covering it up)
5
Faal was just as easily open to self-criticism. "All of us contributed. Our silence contributed.
Especially the intellectuals. We’ve seen the bad laws. If we complained it was in our house.
Nobody would say anything and that encouraged the dictator. He kept pushing the envelope,"
he said.

THE EXPLANATION OF THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE ABUBACARR MARIE TAMBADOU

When questioned on the BBC on June 30, 2019, Gambia’s Justice Minister Abubacarr Marie
Tambadou followed the same line as Essa Faal. Tambadou is another crucial actor in the
justice process in The Gambia. He was the one who placed Faal in his position. It is he who
gives muscle to the TRRC whenever it needs it, strengthening the Commission's credibility.
His support for the process is unfailing.

But he also worked at the State Prosecutor's Office in the late 1990s, before moving to the
private sector and distinguishing himself in the defense of human rights. And he also worked
at the ICTR at the same time as Fatou Bensouda, then under Hassan Jallow, former ICTR
Prosecutor General (and superior of Bensouda) and now President of the country’s Supreme
Court.

When asked whether or not Fatou Bensouda should be called to testify before the TRRC,
Tambadou replied: "That will be a matter for TRRC [to decide]. But having said that, as a keen
follower of the TRRC, I know that prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has not been mentioned
in a very credible manner. We have to remember that she was only a prosecutor at the level
of the state law office and therefore she came at the tail end of any legal process.”

Bensouda wrote to Justice Info that she “would have no misgivings whatsoever” to appear
before the TRRC, that she “has nothing to hide and her conscience is clear.”

But she leaves open the fact that her current position at the ICC may or may not
prevent her from appearing.

(So, she can easily say, “Of course, I will come anytime to appear at the TRRC, but my
high and mighty position at the ICC events me from appearing, so, good luck and carry
on.”)

SHE MUST SPEAK, WE MUST DEMAND THAT SHE SPEAK. JUST LIKE SHE CAN
DEMAND TO THE GENERALS OF MYANMAR, OR ANYONE

Sainey Faye, now 65 years old, never lost the limp inherited from his abuse in 1995. And he
has no hesitation on whether Fatou Bensouda's responsibilities during the period when
she served the dictatorship should be discussed publicly.

"We were told that she was just securing her position, that she had to do it. But for us, she
wasn’t good. We thought she was hard on us," he said. "She should come. She is a lawyer.
6
The way people were accused, the lack of evidence, she should shed light. Let her talk about
our case, how she sees it and how we were treated, unlawfully.”

- “Do you wish her to express regrets?

- “Yes, if there are. From start to end, she is part of it (abductions and torture). She has to say
something about it.”

CULPABILITY, RESPONSIBILITY, CONSEQUENCES

A person who at the instigation of a public servant or employee orders, instigates or induces
the use of torture, directly commits it or is an accomplice thereto. The fact of having acted
under orders of a superior shall not provide exemption from the corresponding criminal
liability. Therefore Fatou Bendousa is criminally liable for the kidnap and torture of Samba
Jallow, Sainey Faye, and countless others, prosecuted illegally by her, for fabricated crimes,
in Gambia.

Fatou Bensouda is one of the most powerful women in the world, leading the ICC with
frightening power to charge anyone with Crimes Against Humanity - yet it is her, and
others like her, that need to be arrested and charged with Crimes Against Humanity.
The ICC (and ICJ) are institutions that might have been founded with lofty vision, but have
actually become dens of highly-paid powerful people who in some cases are no better than
the ones they are pursuing.

THERE IS MORE:
One would think that a person being awarded or elected to such high positions, especially
judges, who are (supposedly) the moral beacons for the rest of us, would not only have to
show impeccable and exemplary character, but also their families and relatives would be
scrutinized and must be free of convicted criminals, and such. (Imagine if a brother, uncle, or
father of a presidential of judicial candidate was a convicted murderer, rapist, or gangster)

THUGGISH SON OF ‘THE WOMAN WHO HUNTS TYRANTS’

WAS GUNNED DOWN IN US

George Bensouda, 33, son of Fatou Bensouda, was fatally shot on January 29, 2018, in
what seemed to be an act of gang violence, in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. At the time of the
killing, police took the unusual step of not publicly naming him. (hmmmm….I wonder who
could have pressured them?)

When St. Paul police first encountered

Bensouda in June 2015, he had a
Minneapolis address. In that case an off-
duty officer heard gunshots being fired,
saw an apparent struggle in a Lincoln
Navigator and a window of the vehicle
7
shattering. No one was injured in the shooting, which police said
occurred in Bensouda’s vehicle. A police report listed Bensouda as a
suspect. He was not charged in that case.

In Wisconsin, he had been accused in a string of gun-related cases.

In November 2010, several people reported they were out drinking and
went to Bensouda’s Eau Claire apartment, where they were playing
video games, according to a transcript from a hearing in federal court.

Bensouda allegedly became angry when a man accidentally bumped

his television and Bensouda began shooting at him, a prosecutor told the court. The man was
not injured, and Bensouda was charged with attempted first-degree homicide in Wisconsin
court, along with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number and possession of
cocaine with intent to deliver in federal court.

Ballistics also linked Bensouda’s gun to a December 2009 incident of shots fired in which a
vehicle was damaged, and an October 2007 shots fired in the area of Bensouda’s apartment,
according to the federal court transcript.

The federal case was dismissed when Bensouda was charged in state court, according to the
U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Wisconsin. He was found guilty of recklessly
endangering safety after a no-contest plea, according to a court record.

On the night of his death a witness at the St. Paul Saloon told police he heard Bensouda
arguing with someone near the pool table, reported that the alleged shooter and a woman left
the bar, and then Bensouda and another man left. The witness heard Bensouda say “I was
going to take care of it right now,” according to the complaint.

From the window, the bar patron saw a man walk up to Bensouda and the other man and start
shooting. After Bensouda fell, the man stood over him and shot him several more times, the
complaint said. Bensouda was pronounced dead at the hospital. He had been shot seven times.

THE ICC VERDICT - CHARGE THE LEGAL EXPERT FATOU BENSOUDA

Clearly, an institution such as the ICC, which one might respectfully revere as the apex of
justice worldwide, with angelic, squeaky clean, exemplary judges, of impeccable wisdom,
coming from pure and divine lineage is not what it actually is - in fact it is not even close, not
even remotely close, and these kind of institutions are dangerously powerful, corrupt, and
frighting, and should be entirely ignored and dismissed.

By Rick Heizman, March 4, 2020

burmafriend88@gmail facebook: Rick Harmony twitter: @RickHarmony

8
9