The latest craze for hospitality ayatollahs. Complaints against politicians for crimes against humanity

Legally speaking, this denunciation is neither in heaven nor on earth. But it is an example of the madness that drives proponents of so-called “universal jurisdiction,” the principle according to which persons or institutions can be convicted and sentenced by anyone on the basis of (alleged) crimes committed anywhere. This time, former Interior Minister Marco Minniti and current Minister of Infrastructure Matteo Salvini at the expense of a very ideological principle and very little legal principle. On both of them the sword of Damocles was hanged in a complaint submitted to the International Court in The Hague by the European Center for Human and Constitutional Rights to the International Court in The Hague. The Berlin-based organization is headed by Wolfgang Kaleck, a far-left lawyer from Berlin who has already been distinguished for asking the German judiciary to investigate US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and CIA Director Gina Haspel. Also in this case, Minniti and Salvini are in good company. The former High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy Federica Mogherini, the former Prime Minister of Malta Joseph Muscat, his successor Robert Abella and, finally, the former director of the lightweight Frontex Fabrice, denounced the fraudsters with them. For all, the accusation is “collusion” with the Libyan Coast Guard in “deprivation of liberty”. By agreeing to fund, train and support the Coast Guard, the various defendants have contributed to the torture suffered by migrants returned to Libyan detention camps. To fully understand the inconsistency, incorrectness and inadmissibility of the complaint, it is necessary to examine its details. The first, which is not of great importance, is the collaboration offered to Ecchr by Sea Watch. The German NGO, which is always among the most active in facilitating the landings on our coasts, in addition to having collected on behalf of Ecchr the so-called evidence used to present the complaint, has also signed its presentation to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. . Less interested post given the many news stories that have seen her go against our powers. First of all, the sensational Guardia di Finanza patrol boat was rammed by a sea-watching vessel commanded by the irreducible “captain” Carola Racketti. But the absurdity of condemnation becomes more apparent when one considers its consequences. By accepting it, the ICC will find itself prosecuting ministers, prime ministers and officials of European countries and institutions, while at the same time ignoring any action against human traffickers from the real men responsible for the exploitation of migrants. The traffickers with whom Sea-Watch itself and many other NGOs have indirect cooperative relations are alleged to be, according to an investigation by Frontex. In all of this, Minniti, Salvini and the others report that they still have the assurance of an unscathed exit. The German organization’s intriguingly messy indictment includes a legal oversight that will almost certainly lead to a complaint. The Statute of the International Criminal Court, established in Rome on 17 July 1998, states that its jurisdiction is exercised “in the case of crimes committed on the territory of a State Party or by a national of a State Party.” But Libya, on whose territory the migrants would have been arrested and tortured, never signed the Rome Statute. If there is a judge in The Hague, the denunciation will leave the time he finds.