Crimes against the administration of justice before the International Criminal Court and the development of international criminal law in the face of witness tampering: case-law commentary on Bemba II

This article offers an analytical commentary on the case of Jean Pierre Bemba Gombo and others at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against the administration of justice and manipulation of witnesses, concluded in 2018 (Bemba II), and analyzes the developments of this important procedural opportunity for international criminal law and international justice, through the interpretation of various contents of Article 70 of the Rome Statute. The article focuses on two main questions; how crimes against the administration of justice affect witnesses before the ICC and how the experience in Bemba II can help the fight inside the ICC against witness tampering? Methodologically, in the first place, an analytical presentation of the facts of the case will be made, later on, the development of the applicable law on crimes against the administration of justice and the procedure in the Trial Chamber and the procedure in the Appeals Chamber will be discussed, following the analysis of the main elements of the decision to fix new penalties (re-sentencing), to conclude with the implications that this case has for the emerging jurisprudence of the ICC on issues as diverse as types of participation, impact on the process, effects of manipulation of witnesses in the victims, and in general, the new challenges that different behaviors of intimidation and tampering of witnesses present to international justice, the States that cooperate in it and international judges.