A stroke of brilliance to stir up the debate. The legal initiative taken by three lawyers from families of jihadists detained in Syria and academics has no chance of success, but it aims to bring to the fore a subject that the executive seeks at all costs to bury .
Mes Marie Dosé, Ludovic Rivière and Gérard Tcholakian, helped by Camille Cressent and Augustine Atry, from the University of Lille, called on Tuesday, March 30, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, based in The Hague ( Netherlands), to open an investigation for “war crimes” targeting Emmanuel Macron, in his capacity as head of state and of the armed forces, into the illegal detention of some 200 children and a hundred women in the camps managed by Kurdish forces in Syria.
The reasoning is bold, but on paper it is most supported. The President of the Republic is criminally irresponsible in France, by virtue of article 67 of the Constitution. It is, on the other hand, before the ICC according to article 53-2, which has the capacity to seize itself vis-à-vis a country like France. This is not the case with the Syrian Kurdish authorities, grouped within the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), better known as Rojava: Syria has not ratified the Rome Statute, which establishes the ICC, and Rojava is not internationally recognized.
“Author” or “accomplice”
By refusing to repatriate French women and children, detained in Syria with tens of thousands of jihadists since the fall, two years ago, of Baghouz, the last bastion of the caliphate of the Islamic State (IS) organization, the president of the Republic leads the representatives of Rojava to be guilty of illegal detention: this role of instigator gives him the quality of” author “ or from ” partner in crime “, according to the drafters of the memorandum to the ICC. However, there is little chance that Fatou Bensouda, three months from the end of her mandate, will open hostilities with a European country that supports the principle of international justice.
The leaders of Rojava, now convinced that an international tribunal will not see the light of day in their territory as they originally wished, recently called for the repatriation of foreign women and children whom they believe they cannot afford. to judge, nor to detain in correct conditions. In a press release dated March 18, the AANES executive council judges that “The radical atmosphere of the camps” is not suitable for children; he also says he is unable to judge women, against whom he “Has no evidence”. Finally, the Rojava authorities strongly reject the accusation of “Illegal detentions”.
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