11.05.07 - ICTR/JUDGES - JUDGE CLAUDE JORDA RESIGNS FOR HEALTH REASONS

Arusha, 11 May 2007 (FH) - The French judge Claude Jorda, a former President of the Appeals Chamber of the “ad hoc” tribunals, ICTY and ICTR, and who presides that Pre-trial Section at the International Criminal Court (ICC), presented his resignation evoking health reasons, according to an ICC press release.
 
This decision, specifies the text, will take effect on 12 August.
 
Judge Jorda chairs the Pre-trial Section of the ICC, which handles the preliminary decisions of indictments and investigations. He was, thus, the presiding judge in the Thomas Lubanga Dyilo case, the first confirmation of charges in the Court. He was elected to the ICC in February 2003.
 
Designated as a judge at the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in January 1994, at the time of its inception, he was reelected in 1996. Thereafter, he was elected President of the Appeals Chamber on November 23, 1999 and reelected to this post in 2001, where he sat until his nomination at the ICC.
 
A "founding father" of international justice, according to an established magistrate, he, in particular, started the completion strategy of the two courts by which has been fixed the goal to finish their trial cases by 2008.
 
Judge Jorda, notably, confirmed the first judgments of the ICTR (Akayesu, Kambanda, Kayishema, Ruzindana, Musema). He had also confirmed the first acquittal, that of Bagilishema.
 
The President of the ICC, Mr. Kirsch, informed the President of the Assembly of States Parties, his Excellency Bruno Stagno Ugarte, of this resignation. In accordance with article 37 of the Statute of Rome, the Assembly of States Parties will have to elect a new judge.
 
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