The International Criminal Court in The Hague has given Myanmar until July 27 to respond to a prosecution request that they consider hearing a case on alleged deportation of Rohingya minorities to Bangladesh, according to Reuters report published in The Irrawaddy Online on Friday.
In a decision published on Thursday, ICC judges asked Myanmar to answer the April request of the prosecution that the ICC should exercise jurisdiction over the alleged crimes.
About 700,000 Muslim Rohingya have fled Myanmar’s Rakhine state to Bangladesh after a military crackdown in August last year that the United Nations described as an ethnic cleansing.
The ICC does not have automatic jurisdiction on Myanmar because it is not a member. However, the prosecutor asked the court to look into the Rohingya crisis and a prosecution through Bangladesh which is a member.
Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has argued that, given the cross-border nature of the crime of mass deportation, a ruling in favor of the ICC jurisdiction would be in line with established legal principle. However, she acknowledged uncertainty around the definition of the crime of deportation and limits of the court’s jurisdiction.
