SATISH SHARMA - not just Rotigraphy.: the still nascent ICC will whither and die on the vine, and with it, any hope of international criminal accountability in our time.

The decision by the Bureau of the Assembly of States Parties, a political body dominated by Western states and their allies, to suspend ICC Prosecutor Khan, despite the exculpatory findings of both the judicial panel that reviewed the case and the OIOS oversight body, can only be seen as just the latest step in a long campaign by the Israeli regime and its US and other allies to obstruct, delay, and punish the prosecutor and the court for their attempts to hold Israeli regime perpetrators to account, and to send a message to judges and future prosecutors: ‘challenge the Israeli regime and we will  crush you.’ The full Assembly must overturn this scandalous action, and take concrete steps to protect the court and prosecutors from Israeli, US, and Western persecution. If they fail to do so, the still nascent ICC will whither and die on the vine, and with it, any hope of international criminal accountability in our time.