Al Jazeera to refer journalist Samer Abudaqa’s killing to ICC
The Al Jazeera Media Network said it will refer the killing of its cameraman Samer Abudaqa in Gaza to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
In a statement on Saturday, the Qatar-based network said it has instructed its legal team to "urgently" refer the case of what it called "the assassination" of Al Jazeera Arabic cameraman Samer Abudaqa to the court in The Hague.
Abudaqa was killed by a drone attack on Friday (15 December) while reporting on an earlier bombing of a school used as a shelter for displaced people in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
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"Al Jazeera Media Network reiterates its denunciation and condemnation of the assassination crime of its colleague, Samer Abudaqa, who devoted 19 years with the Network to covering the ongoing conflict in the occupied Palestinian territories," said the network's statement.
"In addition to the assassination of Abudaqa by the Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip, the legal file will also encompass recurrent attacks on the Network's crews working and operating in the occupied Palestinian territories and instances of incitement against them."
Targeting journalists is a war crime under Article 8 of the Rome Statute.
The media network said it has set up a working group comprising its international legal team and international legal experts to submit a file to the court's prosecutor.
