Bulgaria Ready to Support International Criminal Court – Chief Prosecutor

Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov (L) and the President of the International Criminal Court Song Sang-Hyun (R) met Friday at the Sofia Court House. Photo by BGNES

Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov has met with a delegation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which has arrived in Bulgaria at his invitation.

On Friday, the President of the International Criminal Court Song Sang-Hyun, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Fatou Bensouda, and the Bulgarian representative at the International Criminal Court Ekaterina Trendafilova, met with Tsatsarov and his deputies at the Sofia Court House.

Bensouda said that the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court consisted of three Divisions, including an Investigations Division, a Prosecutions Division, and a Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation Division.

She made clear that a team including representatives of all three divisions was formed for each investigation and the team worked on the spot.

Bensouda, as cited by the press office of Bulgaria’s prosecuting authority, made clear that the optimal number of investigators was 14-16 people, but the team rarely exceeded 8-9 people due to a range of circumstances.

Song Sang-Hyun and Fatou Bensouda listed a number of priority issues of the ICC, including the recruitment of children under the age of 15 in military operations, the protection for children affected by armed conflict, crimes based on race/gender, and crimes against historic buildings.

“As a country which has ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Bulgaria will support any activities of the ICC which are under our jurisdiction,” Tsatsarov declared.