Gambian national sworn in as International Criminal Court Deputy Prosecutor

Fatou Bensouda, a legal expert from Gambia, has been sworn in as Deputy Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in a ceremony held in The Hague.

"The timing of Ms. Bensouda's election could not be better," said Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, whose office is likely to start courtroom activities soon in support of the investigations, which are underway in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda.

Ms. Bensouda was elected in the first and only round of a secret ballot in September, securing 58 of the 78 votes cast by delegates.

The new Deputy Prosecutor, who was sworn in yesterday to serve a nine-year term, has worked as a lawyer, a prosecutor, and a government Minister in Gambia. In May 2002, she took up the post of Legal Adviser and Trial Attorney at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). She has been the manager of a leading commercial bank and a delegate of the Gambia to the meetings of the Preparatory Commission for the ICC in New York in 1999.

Established by the Rome Statute of 1998, the ICC can try cases involving individuals charged with committing war crimes after 1 July 2002. As of September this year, 97 nations have signed on as members of the Court.