The Diplomat
Former Spanish judge of the Audiencia Nacional Carlos Castresana, who aspired to the post of chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), did not achieve his goal when he was defeated in yesterday’s vote at the United Nations.
Castresana, whose candidacy had the backing of the Spanish government, was one of four candidates to succeed Fatou Bensuda, who had held the post since 2012. Along with Castresana, British Karim Kahn, Irishman Fergal Gaynor and Italian Francesco Lo Voi were also in the running.
As no consensus was reached on any of the candidates among the 123 signatory countries of the Rome Statute (the founding treaty of the ICC), the nominations had to be put to a vote.
The Spanish authorities were confident that Castresana, who throughout his career was an anti-corruption prosecutor, investigated crimes during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Chile and Jorge Videla in Argentina, and headed the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), would be the winner.
However, from the first votes, the contest was between Karim Khan and Fergal Gaynor, with Carlos Castresana in third place, and finally, the scales tipped in favor of the british, who will be the third attorney general in the history of the ICC, after Luis Moreno Ocampo and Fatou Bensuda. Karim Khan is a lawyer who has litigated at the ICC with clients such as the Libyan Saif al Islam Gaddafi, the Liberian Charles Taylor or the Sudanese rebel Abu Garda, although he was currently part of the UN team investigating the crimes of the Islamic State.
