...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
on Tuesday named a German lawyer to lead the UN’s investigation into Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
(ISIS) crimes in Iraq, replacing a British barrister who has moved to the International Criminal Court.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres
...Portuguese politician and diplomat, ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. Previously, he was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015. He was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002 and was the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party from 1992 to 2002. He served as President of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005. In both a 2012 and 2014 poll, the Portuguese public ranked him as the best Prime Minister of the previous 30 years...appointed Christian Ritscher as special adviser and head of the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by ISIS/ISIS (UNITAD), the UN said in a statement.
Ritscher is the second person to lead UNITAD, succeeding Karim Khan. He previously served as a federal public prosecutor at the German Federal Court of Justice and has 30 years’ worth of professional experience in criminal law prosecutions and investigations, according to the UN.
He was also the head of German War Crimes Unit, which prosecutes individuals in Germany for international crimes, including the alleged ISIS crimes against the Yazidi community in Iraq in 2014.
ISIS swept through swathes of Iraq and neighbouring Syria in 2014, imposing its so-called caliphate rule with exceptional violence. Among the group’s crimes detailed by the UN are "executions, torture, amputations, ethno-sectarian attacks, rape and sexual slavery imposed on women and girls."
UNITAD was formed after Baghdad called requested assistance from the UN August 2017 to ensure that ISIS members would be held to account for their crimes in Iraq.
The Security Council adopted a resolution in September 2017 for the UN Secretary-General to establish an investigative them "to support domestic efforts to hold ISIS accountable by collecting, preserving and storing evidence in Iraq of acts that might amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed in Iraq."
UNITAD said it has compiled evidence that ISIS committed genocide against Yazidis.
In February, Khan was elected prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. He tweeted his congratulations to Ritscher.
Related:
Karim Khan: 2021-04-29 Kurdistan's President calls Parliament to speed up the process to approve Special Court for ISIS Crimes
Karim Khan: 2021-03-22 Israel cancels PA foreign minister’s travel documents after visit to ICC
Karim Khan: 2021-02-13 UK’s Karim Khan elected next ICC prosecutor, will replace controversial Bensouda
Karim Khan: 2021-04-29 Kurdistan's President calls Parliament to speed up the process to approve Special Court for ISIS Crimes
Karim Khan: 2021-03-22 Israel cancels PA foreign minister’s travel documents after visit to ICC
Karim Khan: 2021-02-13 UK’s Karim Khan elected next ICC prosecutor, will replace controversial Bensouda