Sir Dawda Jawara's Regime Bensouda began her career as state counsel in 1987 in her native country of The Gambia, and then Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions in February 1994 for Sir
Dawda Jawara's government. She was removed from office in March 2000 by President Jammeh. After she was relieved of her government duties, she transitioned into private legal practice in the Gambia from 2000 to 2002.
Criticism Bensouda's time under Jammeh's rule has earned her a fair share of criticism, with many accusing her of turning a blind eye to the atrocities committed by the Gambian dictator. Yahya Jammeh's regime was accused by human rights groups of various abuses. He is notably accused of various human rights violations including extra judicial killings, harassing the opposition and the press. She has worked under Jammeh for six years and she barely criticised Jammeh's regime for the atrocities it continued to commit. But she denied the responsibility for her prosecutions and the cases of torture under the regime she was a part of.
Adama Barrow's Regime Bensouda was appointed as The Gambia's High Commissioner to the UK in 2022 a position she holds to date.
International Criminal Court Bensouda's international career as a non-government civil servant began at the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where she worked as a legal adviser and a trial attorney before rising to the position of senior legal adviser and head of the Legal Advisory Unit (May 2002 to August 2004). On 8 August 2004, she was elected as Deputy Prosecutor (Prosecutions) with an overwhelming majority of votes by the Assembly of State Parties of the International Criminal Court. On 1 November 2004, she was sworn into Office as Deputy Prosecutor (Prosecutions). On 1 December 2011, the Assembly of States Parties of the ICC announced that an informal agreement had been reached to make Bensouda the consensus choice to succeed
Luis Moreno-Ocampo as Prosecutor of the ICC. She was formally elected by consensus on 12 December 2011. Her term as prosecutor began on 15 June 2012. In November 2017, Bensouda advised the ICC to consider seeking charges for human rights abuses committed during the
War in Afghanistan such as alleged rapes and torture by the
United States Armed Forces and the
Central Intelligence Agency, crimes against humanity committed by the
Taliban, and war crimes committed by the
Afghan National Security Forces.
John Bolton,
National Security Advisor of the United States, claimed that the
International Criminal Court had no jurisdiction over the United States, which has not ratified the
Rome Statute that created the ICC. However, Afghanistan did ratify the Rome Statute, and thus crimes committed on its territory by anyone, even if he or she is a citizen of a country that did not accept the ICC's legitimacy, is subject to its jurisdiction. In April 2018 following the 2017-2018
Rohingya Crisis in which hundreds of thousands of mostly-Muslim
Rohingya people in western
Myanmar's
Rakhine State were attacked or driven from their homes by government and civilian attackers, in alleged
ethnic cleansing and
genocide — Bensouda sought a ruling from the ICC that it had jurisdiction over the crisis, despite Myanmar having never ratified the Rome Statute. Because many of the Rohingya were driven into neighboring
Bangladesh, a signatory to the statute, the court concurred with her, and a full-scale investigation was initiated. In December 2020, regarding
Ukraine and
Russia, Bensouda alleged that a preliminary ICC probe found indications of "a broad range of conduct" in 2013-2014 that constituted "war crimes and crimes against humanity", and said they were "within the jurisdiction of the [ICC]." The alleged crimes were connected with violent government suppression of
pro-European protests from 2013 to 2014, and claims of crimes in
Crimea around and following the 2014
Russian annexation of Crimea, and in eastern Ukraine, where Russia had supported rebels since 2014. However, the prosecutors did not get permission for a full-scale investigation until after Bensouda left the court. Bensouda and her family were reportedly threatened directly by the then
Mossad director
Yossi Cohen in an attempt to dissuade her from opening war crime inquiries against Israel. Less than a month before handing over her post to her successor, Karim Khan, she declared in a podcast: "Something I have experienced is pressure, attacks and politicization [but] what we do in this office is critically important," adding, "History will judge us." On 15 June 2021, after a nine-year mandate as Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Bensouda stepped down, passing her role to
Karim Khan. ==Other activities==