JERUSALEM (JTA) — The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor has rejected a panel of judges’ request to reconsider her decision not to investigate war crimes allegations in the Mavi Marmara flotilla case.
The office of Fatou Bensouda has appealed to the ICC appeals court regarding its decision on July 16 to order her by a vote of 2-1 to reconsider the decision to close the case “as soon as possible,” the Israeli media reported Monday evening.
In the appeal, Bensouda said the judges did not consider “the unique context of violent resistance aboard the Mavi Marmara,” Israel’s i24 news reported. The ship was trying to evade Israel’s maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Last November, Bensouda closed a preliminary investigation into the incident in which nine Turkish passengers, including one U.S. citizen, were killed in clashes with Israeli commandos who had boarded the Mavi Marmara. She said at the time that any cases relating to Israel’s boarding of the ship “would not be of sufficient gravity to justify further action by the ICC.”
The judges said earlier this month that the prosecutor made “material errors in her determination of the gravity” of the case. The panel was responding to a request by the Comoros Islands, an ICC member, to investigate the May 2010 incident. The ship was registered to the Comoros.
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