Eduardo González
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, has confirmed to the acting Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, that he himself will “personally” investigate, as a war crime, the death of Spanish aid worker Emma Igual in Ukraine during a Russian attack.
“Yes, I confirm that the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, confirmed to me personally last Wednesday, during the meeting I had with him in which I requested it, that he had been aware of my letter and that the death of Emma “It will still be investigated as a war crime,” Albares declared during an interview with La Sexta from New York, where he is on the occasion of Ministerial Week and the 78th UN General Assembly.
Albares met with the prosecutor on Wednesday to personally request the same thing that he himself had asked in a letter the previous week: the opening of an investigation as a war crime into the death of the director of the NGO Road to Relief, who died on September 9 due to the impact of a Russian projectile against his convoy in Ukraine.
“It is also a personal commitment that I acquired with her mother when I had to tell her the terrible news of death from a projectile,” Albares assured La Sexta. “No matter how long it takes, I guaranteed that we would do everything in our power to ensure that those responsible for launching that rocket that caused her death are brought to international justice,” he added.
“What’s more, I offered Prosecutor Khan the material, financial and technical means that he needed to investigate this specific case,” the minister explained. The prosecutor “agreed to inform me of all the news that there was regarding this matter and he guaranteed me, and thus told me to convey it to Emma Igual’s family, that he is going to conduct this investigation so that, sooner rather than later, those responsible of this death be brought to international justice and pay for it,” he concluded.
Albares confirmed this same news hours after the interview, during a press conference at the United Nations headquarters, in which he stated that the ICC prosecutor “will personally promote the investigation so that those responsible are brought to international justice” and that “the investigation will begin immediately.” Likewise, the minister recalled that he has also put the case in the hands of the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office to open his own investigation in parallel.
Albares has been in New York since last Wednesday to participate in the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly. According to Foreign Affairs in a press release, one of the objectives of the trip was, precisely, “to give new impetus to the investigation of the case that cost the life of the Spanish aid worker in Ukraine Emma Igual, for which she requested that it be investigated as ‘war crime'”.
Ceuta and Melilla
On the other hand, Albares assured yesterday during the aforementioned press conference that the roadmap agreed with Morocco is also being fulfilled in relation to customs. Precisely, it was exactly a year ago, during the UN Ministerial Week in New York, when the Spanish minister and his Moroccan counterpart, Naser Burita, agreed to open land customs in Ceuta and Melilla in January of this year, something that evidently it has not been fulfilled.
“I did not promise it with my Moroccan counterpart, it is in the road map and in the Spanish-Moroccan declaration of the High Level Meeting, and the entire road map is being fulfilled,” he declared. “There have been several steps through customs in Ceuta and Melilla in both directions and, of course, just as all aspects of the roadmap are being fulfilled, steps are also taking place in that one,” he assured. To date, there have been three tests for the passage of goods through customs: January 27, February 24 and May 26.
Regarding the fact that Morocco has never explicitly recognized the Spanish sovereignty of Ceuta and Melilla, Albares assured that “there is no doubt in anyone’s mind about the Spanishness” of the two Autonomous Cities. “I don’t need anyone to confirm that Ceuta and Melilla are Spanish, just as I don’t need anyone to do so with Madrid, Barcelona, La Coruña or Seville,” he said.
Albares’ last hours in New York included, among other events, his intervention at the high-level meeting on Universal Health Coverage, “on behalf of 60 countries”, in which he expressed Spain’s commitment “to sexual and reproductive rights Women’s”; his participation in the meeting of the Group of Friends of the Alliance of Civilizations, where he defended intercultural dialogue as a “driving force for humanity”; a meeting with Spanish officials from the United Nations (who, in the last year, have increased their number by 7.7% to reach 2,724) and a speech at the ministerial meeting on Haiti, organized by the North American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, in which he conveyed Spain’s “commitment to the security, stability and prosperity of the country.”
Bilateral
On the other hand, José Manuel Albares held a bilateral meeting with his new counterpart from Turkey, Hakan Fidan, with whom he discussed bilateral relations, the relationship between the EU and Turkey during the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the Union, cooperation within NATO and global challenges such as food security and climate change. He also met with his Bahraini counterpart, Abdullatif bin Rashid Alzayani, with whom he reviewed the relationship between the EU and the Gulf Cooperation Council during the Spanish Presidency; and with the Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates. Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan.
