18/05/2025

WORLD 8 ON SUNDAY MAY 18, 2025 Supreme Court blocks wartime law deportations

ICC prosecutor steps aside temporarily

THE HAGUE: The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan (pic) , has stepped aside temporarily as an investigation by the United Nations into alleged sexual misconduct nears its end, his office said. The move is unprecedented and

NEW YORK: The US Supreme Court on Friday kept in place its block on President Donald Trump’s deportations of Venezuelan migrants under a 1798 law historically used only in wartime, faulting his administration for seeking to remove them without adequate due process. The justices, in a brief and unsigned opinion, granted a request by American Civil Liberties Union attorneys representing the migrants to maintain the halt on the removals for now. The action came after the court ordered on April 19 a temporary stop to the administration’s deportations of dozens of migrants being held at a detention centre in Texas. ACLU lawyers had asked the Supreme Court to intervene after reporting that the administration was set to imminently remove the migrants without the required notice or opportunity to contest the removals. The justices on Friday agreed. ‘Adequate due process important’ The strikes were part of “the expansion of the battle in the Gaza Strip, with the goal of achieving all the war’s objectives, includ ing the release of the abducted and the defeat of Hamas”, Israel’s army said. Rescuers reported 100 people killed in the territory. The army said on Telegram in Arabic it had begun Operation Gideon’s Chariots to achieve all the war’s objectives, including the release of the abducted and the defeat of Hamas”. A separate statement in English said the army was “mobilising troops to achieve operational control”. Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes on Gaza had killed 100 people on Friday, while the army said its forces had “struck over 150 terror targets in 24 hours. Israel resumed its military offensive in Gaza on March 18 after a two-month truce in its war against Hamas. The latest offensive comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces increasing pressure to lift a sweeping aid blockade on Gaza, as NGOs warn of critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicines. The return to fighting since March 18 has drawn international condemnation, with the UN’s rights chief on Friday denouncing the renewed attacks – and what he described as an apparent push to perma nently displace the population. “This latest barrage of bombs ... and the denial of humanitarian assistance under line that there appears to be a push for a permanent demographic shift in Gaza that is in defiance of international law and is tantamount to ethnic cleansing,” Volker Turk said in a statement.

administration officials had not provided the migrants held at the Bluebonnet immigration detention facility the opportunity for judicial review to contest the removals to a prison in El Salvador before many were loaded on buses headed to the airport – in violation of an order by the justices. The Supreme Court on April 7 placed limits on how deportations under the Alien Enemies Act may occur even as the legality of that law’s use for this purpose is being contested. The justices required that detainees receive notice “within a reasonable time and in such a manner” to challenge the legality of their removal. The interests of the detainees in the case were “particularly weighty” given the administration’s claim in a separate case that it is unable to return to the United States a man who had lived in Maryland and was erroneously deported to El Salvador, the ruling said. The administration accuses the migrants of being members of Tren de Aragua, a criminal gang originating in Venezuelan prisons that the State Department has designated as a foreign terrorist organisation. – Reuters

“Under these circumstances, notice roughly 24 hours before removal, devoid of information about how to exercise due process rights to contest that removal, surely does not pass muster,” the court wrote in its ruling. Conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas publicly dissented from Friday’s decision. Alito, in a dissent joined by Thomas, said he did not think the Supreme Court had the power to weigh in at this stage of the case and questioned whether providing relief to the detainees as a group was legal. The Supreme Court also clarified that the administration was free to pursue deportations under other provisions of US immigration law. Trump’s deportations are part of the president’s immigration crackdown since he returned to office in January. This was the second time that Trump’s actions concerning Venezuelan migrants had come before the Supreme Court in a legal dispute that has raised questions about his administration’s willingness to comply with limits set by the nation’s highest judicial body. Lawyers for the migrants said that

there is no clear procedure for replacing Khan. The situation creates added uncertainty for the ICC, which is already facing a crisis due to US sanctions over its arrest warrants for Israeli officials. Khan’s office said he had taken leave until the end of the investigation by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services. In a statement, Khan’s attorneys rejected all allegations of wrongdoing. They said he had taken leave because media attention on the matter affected his ability to focus on his work but did not intend to resign. “Our client remains the prosecutor, has not stepped down and has no intention of doing so,” law firm Carter-Ruck said. In a letter sent to his staff and seen by Reuters, the prosecutor said that he had been keeping his position under constant review. “In light of escalating media reports, I have made the considered decision to take leave,” Khan said. “My decision is driven by deep and unwavering commitment to the credibility of our office and the court, and to safeguard the integrity of the process and fairness to all involved.” Khan had earlier ignored calls by NGOs and ICC staff to step down while the investigation was under way. Sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Khan had spoken to UN investigators last week in what was believed to be the final interview of a months-long outside investigation into the allegations that started in December. It was unclear when the investigation would end. The ICC’s two deputy prosecutors would take over his duties in the meantime, his office said. – Reuters Napalm Girl credit suspended after probe AMSTERDAM: World Press Photo said on Friday it removed US-Vietnamese photographer Nick Ut’s name as the person credited for one of history’s most iconic pictures, the Vietnam War image Napalm Girl , amid doubts over its authorship. The organisation, which awards prestigious photojournalism prizes, said it carried out an investigation into the haunting 1972 photo, which shows a nine-year-old girl fleeing naked from a napalm strike, after the premiere of the film The Stringer . The documentary chronicles an investigation into rumours that the image, which helped change global perceptions of the war in Vietnam, was taken by a local freelancer, not Ut, the Associated Press staff photographer who won a Pulitzer Prize. World Press Photo, which awarded its Photo of the Year prize to Ut in 1973 for the image, whose official title is The Terror of War , said the film had “prompted deep reflection” at the organisation. After investigating from January to May, it determined that “based on analysis of location, distance, and the camera used on that day”, two other photographers “may have been better positioned to take the photograph than Nick Ut”. – Reuters

Israel launches new Gaza offensive TEL AVIV: The Israeli military said yester day it had launched “extensive strikes” in the Gaza Strip as part of the “initial stages” of a fresh offensive on the besieged Palestinian territory.

Palestinians fleeing Gaza City with their belongings on Friday. – AFPPIC

senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said the group was “awaiting and expecting the US administration to exert further pressure” on Israel “to open the crossings and allow the immediate entry of humanitarian aid”. Israel says its decision to cut off aid to Gaza was intended to force concessions from Hamas, which still holds dozens of Israeli hostages seized on Oct 7, 2023. US President Donald Trump acknowl edged on Friday that “a lot of people are starving” in the territory. “We’re going to get that taken care of,” Trump said in Abu Dhabi, on a regional tour that excluded key ally Israel. – AFP

The main Israeli campaign group repre senting the families of hostages said that by extending the fighting, Netanyahu was missing a “historic opportunity” to get their loved ones out through diplomacy. Hamas on Friday demanded the United States press Israel to lift the aid blockade in return for a US-Israeli hostage released by the group. Edan Alexander, the last living hostage with US nationality, was freed last week after direct engagement with the Trump administration that left Israel sidelined. As part of the understanding with Washington regarding Alexander’s release,