About: the world this week, 19 May 2024 to 25 May 2024: arresting Israel; Death of a President; Elections – UK and India; and irresponsible driving in India.

Everywhere

Arresting Israel

This week, in a public statement, the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC), announced that he is asking the ICC to issue arrest warrants against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The Court has asked ICC member states (called State Parties) to arrest the two Israeli leaders for war crimes committed against the civilians in Gaza, which he says is in the ‘State of Palestine’.

The Prosecutor has also requested, in a separate proceeding, that arrest warrants be issued against Hamas leaders, Yahya Sinwar (Head of Hamas) Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri – known as DEIF -(Commander-in-Chief of the military win of Hamas) and Ismail Haniyeh (Head of Hamas Political Bureau) – war crimes and crimes against humanity, for the ‘7 October 2023 incident’.

The Prosecutor said he was grateful for advice received from, Elizabeth Wilmhurst, Baroness Helena Kennedy, Danny Friedman, Special Advisor Amal Clooney, and Theodor Meron, among a list of other ‘renowned people’ associated with international law.

Amal Clooney, a lawyer and activist, is the wife of Hollywood star George Clooney. People were outraged by her advice and she was slammed on social media for being insensitive to the plight of Israel victims of the brutal massacre of 7 October, and lacking impartiality – the hallmark of a great lawyer.

The Prosecutor of the ICC, in the news, is Karim A A Khan KC, who was sworn in to the job in June 2021. And his job is, ‘trying individuals for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and aggression’.

The Court’s founding treaty, called the Rome Statute, grants the ICC jurisdiction over four main crimes: first, genocide-specific intent in whole or in part of eliminating a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, by killing its members; second, crimes against humanity-serious violations committed as part of large-scale attacks against any civilian population; third, war crimes which are grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions; and fourth, crimes of aggression – use of armed force by a State against the sovereignty, integrity or independence of another State (Russia, rings a bell?)

As a judicial institution, the ICC does not have its own police force or enforcement body: it relies on cooperation with countries worldwide for support, particularly for making arrests, transferring arrested persons to the ICC Detention Centre in The Hague, freezing suspects’ assets, and enforcing sentences. It is not a United Nations(UN) Organization, but has a cooperation agreement with the UN. State Parties support the Courts, accept ICC’s jurisdiction, and also work to incorporate the rules stipulated in the Rome Statute in their own judicial systems. A country – on its choice – can become a State Party, joining with other State Parties, which gathers once a year to provide oversight management for the Court – establishing a budget, providing funding and electing the Court’s Judges and Prosecutor.

Israel reacted quickly, calling the public statement by the Prosecutor, an absolute outrage. The clear message of the joint announcement being that Israel and Hamas are deemed to be equally culpable for the events of 7th October and the aftermath. Israel added that this is unprecedented in the history of international law.

In another development, the countries of Ireland, Norway, and Spain announced they would recognise the State of Palestine on 28 May 2024. The governing body at the basis of the recognition will be the Palestinian Authority. The three European countries said they wanted to help secure a halt to Israel’s devastating Gaza offensive and revive peace talks that stalled a decade ago.

Israel reprimanded the Ambassadors of Ireland, Norway, and Spain over their intent to recognise a Palestinian State, scorning the initiative as a bid to, ‘resurrect old, failed policies’. It called the Ambassadors for a special screening of the Hamas barbarism of 7th October – not previously shown in the public domain.

Close to the end of the week, Israel found three more dead bodies of hostages, in Jabalya, northern Gaza. All of them were killed on 7th October and their bodes were taken into the enclave by Hamas. The identified were Hanan Yablonka, Michel Nisenbaum, and Orion Hernandez.

At the end of the week the International Court of Justice issued an Order – on a vote of 13 to 2 – calling on Israel to ‘immediately halt’ its military operation in Rafah. Israel called the ruling ‘lack of impartiality’ and carried on its operations. Hamas welcomed the ruling.

A Hardline President Dies Hard

Iran’s President, Ebrahim Raisi, 63, died in a helicopter crash this Sunday. The Helicopter, a Bell 212, was carrying the President, the Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, the Commander of the President’s protection unit, other bodyguards, a Provincial Governor, and the crew – a total of nine. All of them died in the crash.

The charred wreckage of the helicopter was found early on Monday after an overnight search in blizzard conditions. Raisi is the second Iranian President to die in office. In 1981 a bomb blast killed President Mohammad Al Rajai in the chaotic days after the Iranian Revolution.

Raisi was heading to the city of Tabriz in the northwest of Iran after returning from an Iran-Azerbaijan border area, where he had gone to inaugurate the Qiz-Qalasi Dam, a joint project with Azerbaijan. The helicopter went down in Varzeqan region north of Tabriz when it flew into difficulties in heavy fog, in poor weather conditions. It slammed into a mountain peak, and crashed in the mountainous, forested area. Two other helicopters, in the convoy of three, made it safely to Tabriz.

Ebrahim Raisi is a hardliner and formerly led the country’s judiciary. He is seen as a protege of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a possible replacement for the 85 year old Khamenei when he resigns or dies. Raisi won Iran’s 2021 Presidential Election in one of the lowest voter turnouts in Iran’s history. His victory in the closely-managed election brought all branches of power under the control of hardliners, after eight years, when the presidency had been held by pragmatist Hassan Rouhani and a nuclear deal negotiated with powers including the United States.

Since taking office, Raisi had ordered a tightening of morality laws, oversaw a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests and pushed hard in nuclear talks with world powers.

Raisi is sanctioned by the United States over his involvement in the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 at the end of the Iran-Iraq war. This earned him the infamous title of the ‘Butcher of Tehran’.

Raisi was born in Mashdad, northeastern Iran, a religious hub for Shia Muslims. He underwent religious education and was trained in a seminary in Qom, studying under prominent islamic scholars including Khamenei. He wears a black turban, which signifies that he is a Sayyid – a descendant of Prophet Muhammad.

In recent times, Iran has been having all kinds of problems beginning with the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini over Islamic dressing issues. In the aftermath the security crackdown the followed and the demonstrations killed more than 500 people and saw over 22,000 detained.

The cause of the helicopter crash is not known, but Iran has a poor air transport safety record: made worse by decades of US sanctions, which have made it hard for Iran to obtain spare parts or upgrade its aircraft.

Supreme Leader Khamenei, who holds ultimate power with a final say on foreign policy and Iran’s nuclear programme, said First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, would take over as interim president. Presidential Elections to choose Ebrahim Raisi’s successor is to be held on 28th June. Khamenei’s own son, Mojtaba Khameini, 55 could be in the race.

United Kingdom Elections- at the Beginning

This week British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that the UK would hold a General Election on 4 July 2024. Sunak’s Conservative Party is up against Keith Starmer’s Labour Party.

Sunak inherited a mess, but it seems unlikely that he has cleaned up that mess enough to earn the Conservatives another term in Office.

Opinion Polls have placed the Conservative Party way behind the opposition Labour Party. And as things stand, Keith Starmer is set to not only win power but secure a massive parliamentary majority.

India Elections – nearing the End.

This week, the juggernaut of India’s Lok Sabha General Elections rolled-on with the 5th phase on 19th May and the 6th phase on 25th May. That leaves the last and final phase – the 7th – going to the polls on 1st June. The week was reasonably quiet in comparison to the sound and dust of the previous weeks.

Driving in the Fast lane

Late last week in an outrageous incident in the city of Pune a, 17 year old juvenile Vedant Agarwal, son of a Builder, Brahma Realty, caused a fatal accident in Kalyani Nagar in the early hours on Saturday. Illegally (18 years is the age eligible for a motorcar driving Licence) driving a Porsche car at high speed, Vedant lost control, colliding with multiple vehicles. The car dragged one of two persons on a motorcycle and finally came to standstill after hitting another two wheeler and a car. The crash resulted in the immediate deaths of two IT professionals Anish Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta, both 24 years old, who were on the motorcycle. Earlier the boy had left a pub in Kalyani Nagar shortly before the incident.

The next day a Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) in Pune in a bizarre judgement granted bail to the 17-year-old boy. And besides imposing the usual condition of parental monitoring, imposed a unique condition directing the boy to submit a 300-word essay on road accidents after studying all the rules and regulations on traffic at the Regional Transport Office (RTO). The boy was released on bail on executing a personal and surety bond of INR 75, 000. The parents were directed to take care of the boy and ensure that he is not involved in such offences in the future and ‘kept away from bad company’. Going deeper, the boy will assist a RTO officer and study traffic rules for 15 days and submit a report to the JJB. He will visit a de-addiction counselling centre and the counselling report will be submitted to the JJB. He has to consult a psychologist and psychiatric doctor at the Sassoon hospital in Pune and that report is to be submitted within 15 days.

There was immediate and spontaneous outrage on social media, and outcry by the people of Pune on grant of bail – and the conditions – in such a horrific case where two people have been mowed down and killed. This resulted in the boy’s father being arrested and the bail of the boy being cancelled and remanded to a teenage observation home. Meanwhile, the family of the victims suffered in silence.

Then in another twist, a Driver ‘was produced’; as being in the car – and said to be actually driving the car. And conforming the same was the boy and two of his friends! But there are tens of witnesses who dragged the boy out of the driver’s seat, after the crash, and bashed him up on the street!

In yet another finding, the boy’s grandfather who stood surety for bail, and who started the family construction business has underworld connections. The name of convicted (and now jailed) gangster Chhota Rajan who one worked with major crime syndicate boss Dawood Ibramin was doing the rounds. This surely is the proverbial can of worms.

Everyday, somewhere in India such unfortunate incidents keep happening, but the ones which gets gets mass attention are almost always Mercedes, the BMWs, or the Porsches. What about the many lives lost, being responsible, and following and enforcing rules?

More road stories coming-up in the weeks ahead. Follow the rules and drive safely with World Inthavaaram.