LONDON: When German authorities arrested Libyan war crimes suspect Khaled Mohamed Ali Al-Hishri at Berlin Brandenburg Airport, the operation was widely praised as a breakthrough for the International Criminal Court.
As a senior member of the Special Deterrence Forces militia, El-Hishri is accused of murdering, torturing, and raping detainees at Tripoli’s notorious Mitiga prison between 2015 and 2020.
His arrest in July not only brought hope of justice for victims of war crimes in Libya. It marked a rare win for the ICC, with one of its key member states cooperating in the arrest and handover of a suspect for trial at The Hague.
Just a few days earlier, major European powers had another opportunity to deliver a suspected war criminal to the ICC.
Khaled Mohamed Ali Al-Hishri. (Reuters)
