ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrant for Myanmar military leader over Rohingya campaign

THE HAGUE — The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said on Wednesday (Nov 27) he would seek an arrest warrant for Myanmar's military leader Min Aung Hlaing for crimes against humanity over the alleged persecution of the Rohingya, a mainly Muslim minority.

A panel of three judges will now decide if they agree there are "reasonable grounds" to believe general Min Aung Hlaing bears criminal responsibility for the deportation and persecution of Rohingya in Myanmar and Bangladesh.

There is no set time frame for their decision but it generally takes around three months to rule on issuing an arrest warrant.

A spokesperson for Myanmar's ruling junta did not answer calls from Reuters immediately after the announcement. Reuters has requested comment from the military government by email.

The ICC prosecutor's move comes as his office faces intense political backlash from Washington, among others, over its arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief Yoav Gallant.

The prosecutor's office said in a statement that it was seeking the warrant after extensive, independent and impartial investigations. More applications for arrest warrants relating to Myanmar will follow, it said.

More than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh during the campaign which UN investigators said was carried out with "genocidal intent".

Buddhist majority Myanmar denies accusations of genocide and has always maintained it does not target civilians, saying it carried out military operations against terrorists.

Myanmar is not a member of the treaty-based ICC, but in 2018 and 2019 rulings judges said the court had jurisdiction over alleged cross-border crimes that partially took place in