MIAMI: A prominent human rights attorney has quietly parted ways with the International Criminal Court to protest what he sees as an unjustified failure of its chief prosecutor to indict members of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro ‘s government for crimes against humanity, The Associated Press has learned.
The Chilean-born Claudio Grossman, a former law school dean at American University in Washington and past president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, was appointed special adviser to ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan in November 2021. In that unpaid position, he advised Khan on the deteriorating human rights situation in Venezuela.
In a harshly worded email last month to Khan, Grossman said his ethical standards no longer allow him to stand by silently as Maduro’s government continues to commit abuses, expel foreign diplomats and obstruct the work of human rights monitors from the United Nations — without any action from the ICC.
“I can no longer justify the choice not to take correspondingly serious action against the perpetrators of the grave violations,” Grossman wrote in an email rejecting an offer by Khan’s office in September to renew his contract.
A copy of the email, which has not been made public, was provided to the AP by someone familiar with the ICC investigation into Venezuela. A phone call by Khan asking Grossman to reconsider also failed, according to the person on the condition of anonymity to discuss the politically sensitive investigation.
Following AP’s inquiries with Khan’s office, Grossman’s name was removed from the court’s website listing him as a special adviser.
“The Prosecutor is extremely grateful to Professor Grossman for the expertise and work he has rendered,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement without addressing Grossman’s stated reasons for cutting ties with the court based in The Hague, Netherlands. Grossman declined to comment.
The pressure on Khan to indict Venezuelan officials, including Maduro himself, comes as he battles allegations of misconduct with a female aide and the threat of US sanctions over his decision to seek the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes in Gaza.
The Rome Statute that established the court took effect in 2002, with a mandate to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide — but only when domestic courts fail to initiate their own investigations.
Calls for faster progress in the court’s only ever investigation in Latin America have grown louder as Maduro tightens his grip on power, preparing to be sworn in for a third term Jan. 10 following an election marred by serious allegations of ballot box fraud and a post-election crackdown. More than 2,000 people were arrested and 20 killed following the vote.
The US and even some fellow leftist leaders in Latin America have demanded authorities present voting records, as they have in the past, to refute tally sheets presented by Maduro’s opponents showing their candidate, Edmundo González, prevailed by a two-to-one margin.
Many in Venezuela’s opposition have complained that the ICC is applying a double standard, moving aggressively to seek the arrest of Netanyahu and Russia’s Vladimir Putin for atrocities in Gaza and Ukraine while showing undue leniency with Venezuelan officials Khan has been investigating for more than three years.
“There is no justification whatsoever for the inaction,” González and opposition leader María Corina Machado wrote in a recent letter to Grossman and 18 other special advisers to the court appealing for their help.
“What is at stake is the life and well-being of Venezuelans,” they added in the letter, which was also provided to the AP by the person familiar with the ICC investigation. “This unjustifiable delay will cast legitimate doubts about the integrity of a system of accountability that has been an aspiration for the whole world.”
At the request of several Latin American governments, Khan three years ago opened an investigation into Venezuelan security forces’ jailing, torture and killing of anti-government demonstrators. At the same time, he promised technical assistance to give local authorities an opportunity to take action before the ICC, a tribunal of last resort.
Earlier this month, Khan delivered some of his harshest comments to date about the human rights situation in Venezuela, warning that officials’ repeated promises to investigate alleged abuses “cannot be a never-ending story.”
“I have not seen the concrete implementation of laws and practices in Venezuela that I hoped for,” he said in a speech at ICC headquarters. “The ball is in Venezuela’s court. The track of complementarity is running out of road.”
Maduro’s government, in response, said in a statement that it “deeply regrets that the prosecutor is being led astray by campaigns that have emerged on social networks promoted by the extreme right, Zionism and Western powers seeking to apply legal colonialism against Venezuela.”
Some Venezuelan critics have linked what they view as foot-dragging to a potential conflict of interest involving Khan’s sister-in-law, international criminal lawyer Venkateswari Alagendra, who has appeared on behalf of the Venezuelan government in two hearings before the court.
An ICC code of conduct directs prosecutors to abstain from any conflicts that may arise from “personal interest in the case, including a spousal, parental or other close family, personal or professional relationship with any of the parties.” Alagendra has previously worked with Khan and his wife defending Seif Al-Islam Qaddafi, the son of the Libyan dictator, at the ICC.
Khan’s office declined to comment about the relationship. But in a filing this month seeking dismissal of a request for recusal filed by the Washington-based Arcadia Foundation, he said a sister-in-law is not a close enough personal relationship requiring automatic disqualification and that he doesn’t recall ever discussing the Venezuela probe with Alagendra, who is just one of several attorneys defending the South American government.
“No fair minded and informed observer would conclude that there is a real possibility of bias,” Khan wrote, adding that he continues to actively and independently investigate the situation in Venezuela.
Those claiming to be victims of the Maduro government have pushed for the court to wrap up its investigation without taking a position on whether Khan should be recused.
After millions of Venezuelans have fled Maduro’s rule, many for neighboring countries, regional governments are also anxiously awaiting progress.
“Many in Latin America expect the ICC prosecutor to have a more muscular response,” said Juan Papier, deputy director for the Americas at Human Rights Watch. “The prosecutor’s office has spent too much time, so far fruitlessly, trying to work with Venezuela authorities to push for domestic investigations. Widespread impunity and lack of judicial independence in Venezuela make the ICC the most viable path for justice.”
Prominent human rights attorney quits international court over failure to prosecute Venezuela
https://arab.news/894re
Prominent human rights attorney quits international court over failure to prosecute Venezuela

- Grossman said his ethical standards no longer allow him to stand by silently as Maduro’s government
Swedish woman jailed for keeping Yazidi slaves in Syria

Accused of keeping Yazidi women and children as slaves at her home in Syria in 2015, Lina Ishaq was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, the Stockholm district court said in a statement.
The crimes warranted a sentence of 16 years, but taking a previous sentence into account it ordered her to spend 12 years behind bars, the court said. Prosecutors had demanded a life jail sentence.
The woman, a Swedish citizen, had already been sentenced to six years imprisonment in 2022 for allowing her 12-year-old son to be recruited as a Daesh child soldier.
Prosecutor Reena Devgun said she was happy with the convictions but she would likely appeal against the sentence.
“These are very, very severe crimes, and compared to other Swedish jurisprudence or Swedish sentencing traditions, I do think that there is room for a more severe sentence,” she told AFP.
The court said the case concerned nine Yazidi, six of whom were children at the time.
All the plaintiffs were captured by Daesh in attacks on Kurdish-speaking Yazidi villages that began in August 2014 in Sinjar, Iraq. Their male relatives were executed and thousands of women were taken.
After about five months of captivity, they arrived at Ishaq’s home in Raqqa.
“The woman kept them imprisoned and treated them as her property by holding them as slaves for a period of, in most cases, five months,” the court said.
Their movement was restricted, they were made to perform chores and some were photographed in preparation to be transferred to other people as slaves.
“Given the fact that she participated in the onward transfer of the injured parties, she is also responsible for enabling their continued imprisonment and enslavement,” the court said.
Ishaq also forced the Yazidis, who practice their own religion, to “become practicing Muslims” by making them recite Qur'an verses and pray four or five times a day.
She also called the injured parties “demeaning invectives such as ‘infidels’ or ‘slaves’,” the court said.
The court stressed “that the comprehensive system of enslavement” was one of “the crucial elements” implemented by Daesh in “the perpetration of the genocide, the crimes against humanity and gross war crimes that the Yazidi population was subjected to.”
As such, the court said “the woman shared the IS intent to destroy a religious group.”
Ishaq’s lawyer Mikael Westerlund said the woman had not decided whether to appeal, but said they were pleased the court had not handed down a life sentence as requested by the prosecution.
“It was important for the prosecution to sentence her for life,” he told AFP.
Around 300 Swedes or Swedish residents, a quarter of them women, joined Daesh in Syria and Iraq, mostly in 2013 and 2014, according to Sweden’s intelligence service Sapo.
Ishaq grew up in a Christian Iraqi family in Sweden but converted to Islam after meeting her late husband and extremist Jiro Mehho, with whom she had six children, in the 1990s.
She traveled to Syria with her children in 2013. Mehho died in August 2013, and Ishaq moved to Raqqa in 2014 and re-married.
Global policymakers, innovators gather in New Delhi for India Energy Week

- Thousands of top industry leaders participate in Indian government’s flagship energy event
- India’s main focus in the energy sector is local production and supply chains, PM Modi says
NEW DELHI: Thousands of top industry executives, innovators and policymakers gathered in New Delhi on Tuesday for India Energy Week 2025, where they will be discussing energy access and sustainability.
More than 70,000 delegates, officials and visitors are expected to take part in the Indian government’s flagship annual energy event, which over the next four days will feature 500 speakers, 700 exhibitors and 10 national pavilions from countries including the US, the UK, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia displaying their newest technology.
Held at the Yashobhoomi convention center in New Delhi, India Energy Week 2025 aims to spotlight energy access, security and new global energy systems, in line with the South Asian giant’s vision of energy transition.
“India’s energy ambitions stand on five pillars: We have resources, which we are harnessing. Secondly, we are encouraging our brilliant minds to innovate. Thirdly, we have economic strength, political stability. Fourthly, India has strategic geography, which makes energy trade more attractive and easier. And fifthly, India is committed to global sustainability. This is creating new possibilities in India’s energy sector,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a virtual address to the event’s participants.
“The next two decades are very important for India’s development. And in the next five years, we are going to cross many big milestones. Many of our energy goals are aligned with the 2030 deadline. We want to add 500 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030. Indian Railways has set a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2030. Our goal is to produce 5 million metric tons of green hydrogen every year by 2030 ... What India has achieved in the last 10 years has given us the confidence that we will definitely achieve these targets.”
India aims to generate 500 GW of electricity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030, under its nationally determined contributions to the Paris Agreement. Solar energy is the dominant contributor to its renewable energy growth, accounting for 47 percent of the total installed renewable energy capacity.
The solar power sector has observed a 3,450 percent increase in capacity over the past decade, rising from 2.82 GW in 2014 to 100 GW in January 2025, according to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
The growth is fueled by local solar module production, which in 2014 had a capacity of only 2 GW.
“There is a lot of potential in India for manufacturing various types of hardware including PV modules. We are supporting local manufacturing,” Modi said. “India’s major focus is on Make in India and local supply chains.”
Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, who opened the India Energy Week, urged participants to help chart a roadmap to stabilize energy markets and strengthen international cooperation.
“I am pleased that the event will see participation from more than 20 energy and other ministers, including deputies, from important stakeholders such as Qatar, UK, Russia, Brazil, Tanzania and Venezuela,” he said.
“It is our fervent hope that the India Energy Week becomes the definitive platform for shaping the energy agenda of the future. This is where transformative partnerships shall take shape, where game-changing technologies are unveiled, and the future of energy is written.”
Bangladesh aims to hold December polls in first vote since Hasina ouster

- Chief of Bangladesh’s interim administration earlier said reforms must take place before election
- Special commission report accused Hasina of rigging previous polls in Bangladesh
DHAKA: Bangladesh is preparing to hold elections in December, the first general vote since the ouster of Sheikh Hasina, the former longtime prime minister, Election Commissioner Abul Fazal Mohammad Sanaullah said on Tuesday.
The country’s interim government, headed by Nobel prize laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus, has been implementing a series of reforms and preparing for elections since taking charge in August, after Hasina fled Dhaka amid student-led protests that called for her resignation.
In November, the transitional authorities appointed a new five-member election commission, which held a meeting with foreign envoys on Tuesday to present its plans for the upcoming polls.
“We have told them that we must make preparations based on the earliest possible date for the election. Our position remains unchanged. We are preparing with December in mind,” Sanaullah told journalists after the meeting.
“The national election is currently the Election Commission’s priority.”
Yunus previously said that Bangladesh could hold elections by the end of 2025 or in the first half of 2026, provided that electoral reforms take place first.
This includes having the Election Commission prepare a new voter list, a process expected to take months.
Following 15 years of uninterrupted rule, Hasina and her Awami League party had allegedly politicized key government institutions, including the Election Commission.
In a report submitted to the interim government last week, a special commission on electoral reforms said that Hasina was responsible for rigging the last three national polls in Bangladesh, as it proposed more than 200 recommendations to improve the country’s voting system.
“In 2014, 2018 and 2024, we witnessed three general elections where the big takeaway was that these were not participatory. There were big questions regarding the quality of these elections due to the absence of the opposition,” Dr. Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah, chairman of the National Election Monitoring Council, told Arab News.
“I think the election should be organized within the shortest possible time considering the ongoing law and order, and political scenario of the country … if there is goodwill and good intentions from the authorities, nothing is impossible.”
Five killed in suicide bomb blast in northeastern Afghanistan, police say

- Blast at Kabul Bank kills bank’s security guard, four others including civilians and members of ruling Taliban movement
- Militants from the Afghan chapters of Daesh have waged insurgency against the Taliban since they returned to power in 2021
KABUL: At least five people were killed when a suicide bomber with explosives strapped to his body detonated outside a bank in northeastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, police said.
The blast took place at 8:35 a.m. (0405 GMT) near the Kabul Bank branch in Kunduz province, killing the bank’s security guard and four others including civilians and members of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban movement, police said.
Seven people were wounded, provincial police spokesman Jumma Uddin Khakasr added.
He did not say who was believed to be behind the attack and no group has claimed responsibility so far.
Militants from the Afghan chapters of Daesh have waged an insurgency against the Taliban since they returned to power in 2021.
Taliban authorities say they have mostly crushed the group, even as it continues to carry out attacks in Afghanistan.
Suicide bomber kills five outside bank in Afghanistan: police

- Attack targeted a queue of people waiting to collect their salaries
KABUL: A suicide bomber killed five people including Taliban security forces on Tuesday in an explosion outside a bank in northern Afghanistan, police said.
Seven people were also wounded in the attack which targeted a queue of people waiting to collect their salaries from a bank in the city of Kunduz, the capital of Kunduz province.
“A suicide bomber, who had improvised explosive devices, detonated himself,” said Jumadin Khaksar, police spokesman for Kunduz province.
He said civilians, civil servants and members of the Taliban security forces were among those killed.
“The Kunduz Province Police Command is working with relevant organizations to find the perpetrators of the incident and bring them to justice.”