Guarantees of the Accused Before of the International Criminal Court

The importance and aim of this study stem out from the fact that it is a methodological research attempt to track the guarantees of the accused in front of the International Criminal Court and identify these guarantees that are stated in the Rome Statute in ensuring a fair trial for the accused. At first, the guarantees of the accused developed with the development of the international criminal jurisdiction. In the pre-World War I period the accused used to face the death penalty or deportation without giving him / her any guarantees that would enable him / her to prove his / her innocence. After this period, International Law scholars began to call for giving the accused guarantees in front of the international criminal jurisdiction, in addition to having the bodies who are responsible for investigation and judgment commit themselves to these guarantees. In addition to the efforts carried out by International Law scholars, the statutes of the International Criminal Tribunals (Nuremberg, Tokyo, Yugoslavia and Rwanda) came to assure the importance of offering guarantees to the accused in front of these courts whether in the investigation or trial stages. These guarantees include: Informing the accused of the charge against him / her, give him / her enough time to prepare his / her defense, the accused must be tried without delay, the accused has the right to attend his / her trial and defend him / herself, the accused has the right to assign him / herself a lawyer and in case he / she cannot assign a lawyer due to some financial limitations the court assigns a lawyer to the accused. Anyone who is aware of the guarantees of the accused in front of the International Criminal Court which is stated in the Rome Statute can realize its rooting in the Islamic Law, the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and national legislation. After this preface, the researcher talked in details about the guarantees of the accused in front of the International Criminal Court both in the investigation and trail stages. In the first chapter the researcher talked about the guarantees of the accused in front of the International Criminal Court in the investigation stage where he discussed the authority in charge of the investigation. This authority included the Office of the Attorney General which consists of the Attorney General and his deputies who are elected independently and carry out their duties in impartiality. In addition to that, the researcher talked about the role of the Pre-trail Chamber which has a complementary role to that of the Attorney General in the investigation process. Also in this chapter, the researcher talked about the basic rules that govern the investigation process in crimes that fall within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. Among the most important of these rules is the investigation codification rule and the investigation publicity rule. Finally the researcher talked in this chapter about the guarantees of the accused during the investigation procedures which include the testimony, the arrest and interrogation. In the second chapter, the researcher talked about the guarantees of the accused in front of the International Criminal Court during the trial stage. The researcher first explained the guarantees of the accused with respect to the Criminal Judge and talked about the requirements that the Criminal Judge must meet in addition to the inhibitions that prevent the Judge from considering the dispute before him. The researcher also discussed the importance of the Judge's specialization in criminal disputes. Furthermore, the researcher talked in this chapter about the guarantees of the accused that are related to the general rules of the trial which include the following: 1)The trail publicity rule: This rule provides a guarantee to protect the accused through allowing the public opinion to serve as a monitor of the judiciary practices. This guarantees the accused a fair trial that leads to the unveiling of the truth and achieving justice. It also leads to a double benefit in that it leads to the respect of the judiciary and the policy of public deterrence. 2)The oral proceedings rule: Through this rule the court can reach to a sound convincement regarding the truth about the kind of charge against the accused. This rule allows for putting all the proceedings, requests, defenses, evidences and pleadings lively in front of all the bodies involved in the case. 3)The attendance rule: This rule allows the accused to participate effectively and positively in the trial. His/her attendance at the trial allows these procedures to proceed in accordance to the set legal principles and enables the bodies involved in the case to present their statements and listen to the others' statements. This rule is very crucial in the trail stage since it represents the last chance for the accused to convince the judge of their innocence. 4) Codification of the trail's proceedings: Writing down all the proceedings indicates how much the court is committed to the procedural rules that govern the addressing of the court's hearings and how well the court enforces the law. This rule also enables the court that hears the appeals to be aware of and familiar with what occurred during the hearings of the Court of First Instance. 5)Compliance of the court with the limitations of the criminal procedures (Personal and concrete) this means that only the person who was referred to the court should be tried not anybody else, and also requires the court to commit itself to the facts stated in the referral decision. This rule is an inevitable result of the principle of the separation between the functions of judgment and prosecution. It turned out that these rules represent important and necessary guarantees to protect the rights of the accused. Finally in this chapter the researcher talked about the guarantees of the accused in front of the International Criminal Court that are related to the criminal judgment. The researcher explained that the criminal judgment must be issued based on a study of the personality of the accused. The researcher also explained that the importance of causing the criminal judgments that are issued by the Trial Chamber. Finally, it turned out that the Rome Statute allowed the accused to appeal against the sentences issued by the Trial Chamber or the Appeals Chamber if some specific conditions are met.