Palestine requests the International Criminal Court to investigate the Murder of Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

30-05-2022

Grace ATALUI MOKANGO

International Justice and Human Rights Researcher 

Global Human Rights Defence

“We have documented [the crime] and submitted a file about it to the ICC prosecutor alongside other Israeli violations,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki told Anadolu Agency, as reported by Aljazeera on 23 May 2022. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki has called for the murder of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh to be formally investigated by the International Criminal Court. The victim, aged 51 at the time of her death, was covering an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank on 11 May when she was shot. As a result, eyewitnesses to the scene have always claimed that she was shot by Israeli forces. 

Minister Al-Maliki called on the ICC and added the murder of the journalist to the dozens of other cases and crimes under investigation in the situation in Palestine since 2013. As reported by Aljazeera, “Palestinians say the killing of Abu Akleh is war crimes indeed.”

The Al Jazeera news channel, for which the victim worked, and the Palestinian people claim that this was a cold-blooded murder and are calling for an objective, impartial and independent investigation by the International Criminal Court. 

Source and further reading

Al Jazeera, Palestine asks ICC to investigate Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing, News, ( 23 May 2022), from: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/23/palestine-requests-icc-to-investigate-shireen-abu-akleh-killing