The Wet Blanket Scandal: ICC Judge de Gurmendi should resign to allow transparent investigations to

05:25 AM July, 15 2016

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The Wet Blanket Scandal: ICC Judge de Gurmendi should resign to allow transparent investigations to begin



It is totally hypocritical for the US, which is not even a member of ICC, to blackmail and intimidate Sudan and African countries by a politicized court, labeled in Africa as colonialist, anti-African, and racist!



By Mekki Elmograbi

[email protected]



The nasty smell came again from the wet blanket, the scandal of the corruption from ICC spread out through international media. I always say, a proverb can help you to understand “the controversial international intervention justified by human rights and international justice but comes out with results against human rights and international justice.”, a wet blanket is not a blanket! You cannot use wet blanket to cover yourself in cold weather; it is not just useless, it is harmful! The meaning could be more understandable if we say “politicized justice is not justice.” It is really the scandal of the year 2016! ICC adherents are claiming that the very purpose of such ICC “campaigns and raids” against Africa is justice and human rights, but the results are totally negative. That means there is a big lie in the ICC.

According to The London Evening Post, the president of the ICC has received millions of dollars to ensure the indictment against President Omar Al-Bashir. The Post’s correspondent, Jessica Badebye from Nairobi, reported that between 2004 and 2015, the ICC President Judge Silvia Alejandra Fernández de Gurmendi allegedly received in her private bank accounts at Banco Popular in the Virgin Islands unexplained funds mounting to over 17 million US dollars, which was allegedly paid to witnesses that enabled the ICC to indict the Sudanese President.

This scandal should awake human rights activists in Western countries to pull out from ICC’s false campaigns against Africa.

Moreover, it is totally hypocritical for the US, which is not even a member of ICC, to blackmail and intimidate Sudan and African countries by a politicized court, labeled in Africa as colonialist, anti-African, and racist. There are some voices in Western media who want to show a specific negative image of Al-Bashir, but this is not his image inside Sudan and all around Africa. In contrast, the image of the ICC in the entire continent is not the image that activists in the US and Europe want to promote. You may even hear from Sudanese or Africans who have chosen to live in the West may agree with the ICC, but this is misleading! Al-Bashir is widely respected and very popular in Africa, not just Sudan.

The paper said the funds have been channeled through Judge de Gurmendi’s accounts by Barting Holding Ltd, Atlantic Corporation, Genesis International Holdings and Napex International, all of which are offshore financial companies, who allegedly made wire transfers ranging from 150,000 - 250,000 US dollars to the judge’s bank accounts. These funds were made available to Judge de Gurmendi during the time that the ICC was looking for evidence to indict Al-Bashir.

The Pan African Forum Chief Dr David Nyekorach Matsanga called upon Judge de Gurmendi to resign from her position because it was improper for an ICC judge to receive unexplained sums of money “which outmatch her annual salary.” All free and independent activists should support Matsanga’s call because her resignation is the only way that would allow proper and transparent investigations to take place.

I remember that day very well. In July 2008, the International Criminal Court fabricated its false indictment against President Omar Al-Bashir, in an act against the sovereignty of Sudan and the dignity of the Sudanese people. Al-Bashir’s first visit after that indictment was to Darfur. All the cities and places he visited in Darfur are surrounded by desert and mountains in which Darfuri tribes live. It was a Sudanese message that the ICC indictment was false. I repeat here again what quoted from New Work Times before eighteen years, “It is one of the strangest things that has ever been seen to witness Mr. Al-Bashir doing a spirited jig on top of a desk that has been set up in front of tens of thousands people,” commented Jeffrey Gettleman of the New York Times in a video recorded during Al-Bashir’s historical visit. Since that time, the countdown of the ICC started; in 2014 an extraordinary African summit discussed mass withdrawal from ICC.



By Mekki Elmograbi

[email protected]

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