Chilean court reopens case against soldier accused of Gaza war crimes

Spread the love

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Rom Kovtun, who served as a sniper during the Al-Shifa Hospital operation, is facing allegations of war crimes and Gaza genocide in Chilean courts. [Photo source –The Hind Rajab Foundation]

by Eman Abusidu EmAbusidu

A recent judicial ruling in Chile has revived scrutiny of a criminal complaint against an Israeli-Ukrainian soldier accused of committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip, reviving a legal debate over the application of universal jurisdiction in the country.

The Santiago Court of Appeals overturned a prior ruling by the Eighth Guarantee Court, which had refused to examine the complaint against Rom Kovtun. The appellate court ruled that the question of jurisdiction cannot be decided without hearing all parties involved. 

A public hearing is scheduled for 12th June, where the complainant, the defence, and the Public Prosecutor’s Office will present arguments on whether Chilean courts have the authority to investigate alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed abroad.

The complaint was filed in February by the Hind Rajab Foundation through Chilean lawyer Pablo Andrés Araya Zacarías. It seeks Kovtun´s investigation under Chilean Law No. 20.357, which criminalises genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, in line with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

According to the complaint, Kovtun served as a sniper in the 424th “Shaked” Battalion of the Givati Brigade and operated under the 401st Armored Brigade during military operations in Gaza. He is accused of participating in the siege and destruction of the Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City between March and April 2024. The operation reportedly caused extensive damage to medical infrastructure and civilian casualties, including patients and hospital staff.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DZGQrJrDwAt

Legal experts and human rights advocates caution that the Court of Appeals’ decision does not confirm the allegations or rule on the merits of the case. Its purpose is limited to determining whether Chilean courts have jurisdiction to examine the complaint. The outcome of the June hearing will decide whether Chile proceeds with a formal criminal investigation or dismisses the case as outside its jurisdiction.

READ: Director of ‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’ declines award at Berlin event

Chilean lawyer and former ambassador Nelson Hadad highlighted the lack of legal consistency in Chile regarding universal jurisdiction. “This issue lacks consistent jurisprudence; that is, in most cases, the Chilean judiciary has rejected the principle of universal jurisdiction and the extraterritorial application of the law,” he said.

Regarding the upcoming hearing, Hadad noted, “In this case, there is a hearing scheduled for 10th June in which… will there be a ruling on this matter? It could perhaps be the first time.”

He emphasised the cautious approach of the judiciary and prosecutorial authorities. “The Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Judiciary as such accept some arguments to be able to prosecute in Chile this Israeli soldier responsible for numerous crimes,” Hadad explained.

At the same time, he highlighted past reluctance from Chilean authorities. “But I believe that the Public Prosecutor’s Office, especially the North Central Prosecutor’s Office where Prosecutor Armendariz is, has been consistently reluctant to accept universal jurisdiction,” he said.

Looking ahead, Hadad stressed the potential impact of a favorable ruling. “We are waiting to see what happens because if it were the opposite and it were accepted, it would set a very important legal precedent for trying numerous cases from Chile with the Chilean justice system, crimes committed abroad, in this case, crimes committed in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine.”

He concluded with cautious optimism: “So we can talk again on 10th June, once the court has ruled on this point. But at least there is hope.”

BLOG: Latin American anger grows over Israel’s detention of Thiago Ávila

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel's genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism "without qualification". Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/

Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up
Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up

Continue ReadingChilean court reopens case against soldier accused of Gaza war crimes

HRF urges ICC to issue warrants for 24 Israeli soldiers accused of the murder of Hind Rajab and her rescuers

Spread the love

Original article by Aseel Saleh republished from peoples dispatch under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Hind Rajab and her family were martyred by Israeli forces, who fired 355 bullets at the child and her family while they were trapped in a vehicle. Photo: PRCS

The move followed a thorough criminal investigation conducted by various institutions, which provided compelling evidence of the complicity of the named personnel.

The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) filed a complaint on Tuesday, October 21, to the International Criminal Court (ICC), with the names of 24 Israeli soldiers and commanders, whom evidence suggests are complicit in murdering six-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, six of her family members, and two Palestinian paramedics in January 2024.

The move came one day after Al Jazeera Arabic broadcast a documentary on Monday, October 20, revealing the identities of the Israeli personnel, who “directly participated in or facilitated” the brutal assault.

The Brussels-based non-profit organization, which was named after the victimized Palestinian child with the mission of addressing and challenging Israeli impunity, said that the new complaint builds on its first communication to the ICC that was filed on May 3, 2025.

Who are the Israeli personnel identified by the HRF?

The first communication was filed by the foundation, after it identified Israeli Lieutenant Colonel Benny Aharon as the Israeli officer who has been directly responsible for Hind Rajab’s crime.

Aharon is the commander of the 401st Armored Brigade of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) that carried out the military operation, which targeted Hind’s family car in Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa neighborhood.

The HRF said then that it took a whole year of investigation to identify the IOF personnel under Aharon’s command who were involved in the attack.

In its new complaint, the HRF named the following IOF commanders and soldiers besides Aharon:

  • Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Ella, Commander of the 52nd Armored Battalion, which operates under the 401st Armored Brigade.
  • Major Sean Glass, Commander of the Vampire Empire Company, which operates under the 52nd Armored Battalion.
  • 22 identified tank crew members of the Vampire Empire Company.

HRF’s executive director, Dyab Abou Jahjah, explained to Al Jazeera that the organization has known that the 401st brigade was responsible for killing Hind Rajab, but it wanted to go deeper than that and identify the battalion, the company and even every single tank participating on the ground at the time of the crime.

Regarding the complicit IOF company, Abou Jahjah said: “The company has only an English name ‘Vampire Empire’, which also indicates that it is in some sense a multinational company, and indeed it is. This company played a heinous role in the genocide in Gaza. It participated in the assault on Al-Shifa Hospital and in committing the massacre there.”

Read More: The genocide will not end until the Palestinian political leaders are free

“There is a large number of dual-nationality soldiers in the company, and this truly opens up avenues for legal action at the countries’ level. At the level of the home countries of these criminals,” he noted.

How were these names identified?

According to Al-Jazeera’s documentary, these names were identified by tracking the social media accounts and profiles of various IOF personnel, who were boasting about their crimes in Gaza by posting related footage online for several months.

Publicly available sources and other privately leaked documents, were also used by Al Jazeera to identify the names of those found complicit in various IOF units during Israel’s genocidal aggression on the Gaza strip, focusing on Hind Rajab’s killing incident.

An investigation was conducted by Al Jazeera, London-based multidisciplinary research group Forensic Architecture, and the world’s first not-for-profit organization producing audio investigations, Earshot.

The three investigatory partners relied on evidence and analysis based on maps, satellite images, eye witnesses accounts, audio recordings, and phone calls obtained from the crime scene, which precisely revealed the source of the shooting.

“It was a site where there was not much visual evidence of the incident until after it had transpired. As with many of our cases, we use satellite imagery and this case was no exception. And we were, in this case, also able to use audio recordings that were captured by the Palestinian Red Crescent,” Nicholas Masterton from Forensic Architecture told Al Jazeera in the documentary.

“What was interesting about this case, was the way that those two things; the spatial mapping that came from the satellite imagery and the audio recordings, came together to give us an insight into what occurred on that day,” Masterton added.

Israel claimed that Hind Rajab, her family, and the paramedics were present in an area where an exchange of fire took place between the IOF and Palestinian resistance fighters.

However, a 28-second audio recording of Hind Rajab’s cousin screaming at the time of the incident, while rapid gunshot from a weapon that fires at high rate is heard, confirms that no exchange of fire took place then.

Satellite images also showed that only Israeli Merkava tanks were deployed in the area, when the crime was perpetrated.

Original article by Aseel Saleh republished from peoples dispatch under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.


Continue ReadingHRF urges ICC to issue warrants for 24 Israeli soldiers accused of the murder of Hind Rajab and her rescuers