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War Crimes Suspect
Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan's war dead, including convicted World War II war criminals, was vandalized again overnight Monday. It is deplorable that an act seeking to denigrate the shrine's dignity has happened again, the shrine said in a statement. In May, a stone pillar at Yasukuni was spraypainted red. A Chinese suspect was arrested in July. Neither the police nor the Shinto shrine would go into details of the latest vandalism, saying an investigation was ongoing. Japanese media reports said graffiti reading toilet in Chinese, written with what appeared to be black markers, was found Monday morning on a stone pillar near the shrine's arch. Asian nations that suffered from Japanese aggression before and during World War II see Yasukuni as a symbol of militarism. Convicted Class A war criminals, including Hideki Tojo, Japan's wartime prime minister, are among the 2.5 million Japanese war dead enshrined at Yasukuni. The shrine itself, a dramatic-looking building w
By accusing the heads of Israel and Hamas of war crimes, the International Criminal Court's top prosecutor placed them among world leaders infamous for heinous acts against humanity. The chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced arrest warrants Monday against two Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and three Hamas leaders. The prosecutor focused on actions taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 when militants stormed southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostages, and on Israel's military response in Gaza, which has killed roughly 35,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry. Netanyahu condemned the decision Monday, calling it a complete distortion of reality. I reject with disgust the Hague prosecutor's comparison between democratic Israel and the mass murderers of Hamas, Netanyahu said. In a statement, Hamas accused the prosecutor of trying to equate the victim with the executioner. It said it has the right to resist Israeli ...
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said on Sunday that his office will further intensify its efforts to advance its investigations of possible crimes by Hamas and Israeli forces, after he visited the region for this first time since his appointment. There have been widespread claims of breaches of international law by Hamas and Israeli forces since war erupted after the deadly October 7 attacks by Hamas and other militants that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel. Around 240 people were taken hostage. The Hague-based court has been investigating crimes in the Palestinian territories committed by both sides since 2021 but has yet to announce any charges. Israel is not a member state of the court and does not recognise its jurisdiction. Prosecutor Karim Khan said in a written statement issued after his visit that he witnessed scenes of calculated cruelty at locations of the October 7 attacks. During the visit, he spoke to family member
French judicial authorities issued international arrest warrants for Syrian President Bashar Assad, his brother, and two army generals for alleged complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity, lawyers for Syrian victims said. They include a 2013 chemical attack on rebel-held Damascus suburbs. A victim of the attack welcomed the move as a reminder of the horrors of Syria's civil war and urged countries where Assad might travel to arrest him. While he is unlikely to face trial in France, international warrants for a serving world leader are very rare and send a strong message about Assad's leadership at a time when some countries have welcomed him back into the diplomatic fold. In addition to President Assad, the arrest warrants were issued for his brother, Maher Assad, the commander of the 4th Armored Division, and two Syrian army generals, Ghassan Abbas and Bassam al-Hassan, the lawyers said. There was no immediate comment from the Syrian government on the warrants. Jeann
French judicial authorities on Wednesday issued international arrest warrants for Syrian President Bashar Assad, his brother and two army generals alleging their involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity including in the chemical attack in 2013 on rebel-held Damascus suburbs, lawyers for Syrian victims said. In addition to President Assad, the arrest warrants were issued for his brother, Maher Assad, the commander of the 4th Armored Division, and two Syrian army generals, Ghassan Abbas and Bassam al-Hassan. Jeanne Sulzer and Clemence Witt, lawyers at the Paris Bar who represent the plaintiffs, and NGOs behind the complaint, hailed the decision Wednesday. It marks a crucial milestone in the battle against impunity, Sulzer told The Associated Press on the phone. It signifies a positive evolution in case law recognising the grave nature of the crimes committed. The Paris prosecutor's office has not publicly commented on the arrest warrants that remain secret under French l
Evidence collected in Iraq strengthens preliminary findings that Islamic State extremists committed crimes against humanity and war crimes against the Christian community after it seized about a third of the country in 2014, a UN investigative team said in a report circulated on Thursday. The report to the UN Security Council said crimes included forcibly transferring and persecuting Christians, seizing their property, engaging in sexual violence, enslavement and other inhumane acts, such as forced conversions and destruction of cultural and religious sites. In addition, the team said it has identified leaders and prominent members of the Islamic State extremist group who participated in the attack and takeover of three predominantly Christian towns in the Nineveh plains north of Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, in July and August 2014 -- Hamdaniyah, Karamlays and Bartella. It also started collecting evidence on crimes committed against the Christian community in Mosul. Islamic .