BREAKING: Ugandan Judge Tipped for next ICC Prosecutor

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Hague, Netherlands – Judge of the High court and International Criminal Division, Susan Okalanyi has been tipped to be the next Prosecutor at ICC,

In an article issued by Justice in Conflict, Mark Kersten, a consultant at the Wayamo Foundation, a Senior Researcher at the Munk School of Global Affairs, revealed that the shortlist for chief Prosecutor had been released ahead of the vetting.

“After months of waiting in anticipation, we now know that one of the following four individuals will become the next chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC),” read part of the article.

Uganda’s Susan Okalany faces-off with Morris A. Anyah (Nigeria), a trial attorney in the Law Office of Morris A. Anyah, LLC in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A, Fergal Gaynor (Ireland), currently Reserve International Co-Prosecutor at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia; and Richard Roy (Canada), currently Senior General Counsel with the Public Prosecutor Service of Canada.

In 2016, Justice Okalanyi, then Gulu High Court Judge, presided over the pretrial of former LRA commander Thomas Kwoyelo.

She equally closed a case file relating to the ownership wrangle of Plot Six Mosque in Mbale town in March 2017 and had been central at solving land-related cases.

Kwoyelo was indicted on war crimes and crimes against humanity. He committed the offences during a two-decade LRA war in northern Uganda, South Sudan and the Central African Republic between 1987 and 2008.

“The immediate reaction to the list has been shocking. That largely has to do with the fact that some international criminal law heavy-hitters were rumoured to be in the running – and they’re not on the list,” Kersten interjects.

As Patryk Labuda states, “none of the favourites made the cut”. Indeed, many qualified candidates applied for the post, undoubtedly making the process a better and richer one, but did not make the final cut.

The list is undoubtedly far from what the rumour mill and speculation would have led one to believe. Few of the so-called ‘favourites’ made the list, some for good reason. In the coming days and weeks one hot-top to be debated is whether the ICC needs fresh blood. For those that believe it does, this list may be a starting point.

Alexandra Lily Kather has said that the list had “no alarms” but some positive surprises. For ML Simms, it seems that the list brought together “fairly neutral candidates, persons without a huge footprint” in the international criminal law world.

Others may feel that while the Court could have used new blood, some of the candidates are simply too distant from the international criminal law world. That can come with its own downsides. Owiso Owiso observes, for example, that lesser known candidates will have their work cut out form them: “they probably have to ‘introduce’ themselves to a very unforgiving, impatient and insular [international criminal law] world. I don’t envy them.”

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For yet others, their favoured candidate’s absence from the list will surely be a source of consternation.

Information indicates that the largest group pf applications came from Africa and the ‘Western European and others group’.

Just under 71% of applicants were male.

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