International Criminal Court analysing Chilima’s report on Malawi leader 

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has confirmed receipt of Vice-President Saulos Chilima report and, currently, they are busy analyzing it.

Chilima submitted a report to ICC on June 2020 reporting President Peter Mutharika and Acting Inspector General of Police Duncan Mwapasa for alleged criminal offences committed between 2018 and 2020.

The Office of the Prosecutor at the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands, said it will first assess whether the communication concerns matters that are outside the jurisdiction of the court.

“We can confirm we have received a communication as the sender has made that fact public. As we do with all such communications, we will analyse the materials submitted, as appropriate, in accordance with the Rome Statute and with full independence and impartiality.

“The first step of that process is to assess whether the communication concerns matters that are manifestly outside the jurisdiction of the court.  As soon as we reach a decision on the appropriate next step, we will inform the sender and provide reasons for our decision,” reads a communication quoted in The Nation daily newspaper on Thursday.

According to the Policy Paper on Preliminary Examination Activities (2013), the Office of the Prosecutor at ICC conducts, on the basis of its proprio motu (on one’s own initiative) powers under Article 15 of the Roman Statute, a preliminary examination of all situations that are not manifestly outside the jurisdiction of the Court.

In the report, which his lawyer Chikosa Silungwe confirmed, Chilima mentions crimes such as murder under Article 7(1) (a), rape and other forms of sexual violence under Article 7(1), causing severe injury under Article 7(1) (k) and persecution based on political affiliation under Article 7 (1) (h) of the Rome Statute.

Top among the issues are the petrol-bombing of the UTM Party office in Area 24, Lilongwe which housed the Tambala family, and the rape of women and girls at Msundwe, M’bwatalika and Mpingu in Lilongwe by some alleged police officers in Lilongwe.

In his statement, Chilima submits: “There is an Election Campaign Strategy of the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP]—whose president is Arthur Peter Mutharika—by which the civilian population is systematically attacked, principally based on the use of DPP youth cadets, political allies, law enforcement agents [particularly the Malawi Police Service] on instructions of Arthur Peter Mutharika and Duncan Mwapasa.”

He claims public officials have consistently denied, trivialised or outrightly ignored the existence of crimes committed against the civilian population by DPP youth cadets and police officers as “agents of Mutharika and Mwapasa”.

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