On 2 September 2019, the legal teams for the Government of the Comoros and the victims of the 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla - for which Haydee Dijkstal is co-counsel on both legal teams – received a successful result before the International Criminal Court Appeals Chamber to their submissions against the Prosecutor’s appeal of the Pre-Trial Chamber’s decision on judicial review.  Haydee has been a member of the legal teams for the Government of Comoros and victims since 2014 in litigation over whether the Prosecution will open an investigation into war crimes allegedly committed by the Israeli Defense Forces against passengers on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in May 2010.   

Following the Government of the Comoros’s successful judicial review of the Prosecution’s decision not to open an investigation, the Prosecution appealed the Pre-Trial Chamber’s decision which ordered it to correct errors of law and fact, and to reconsider its decision not to investigate the potential war crimes.  The Appeals Chamber’s Judgment on 2 September largely accepted the arguments made by the Government and victims, rejected the Prosecution’s two grounds of appeal and affirmed the Pre-Trial Chamber’s order for the Prosecution to reconsider its decision whether to open an investigation into the war crimes committed.

The ICC Appeals Chamber’s Judgment is available here.