Melbourne university vice-chancellor Duncan Maskell threatened with ICC legal action
The students are threatening to take action in the International Criminal Court against the University of Melbourne’s vice-chancellor.
Pro-Palestine students have launched a bizarre bid for legal action against vice-chancellor Duncan Maskell at the International Criminal Court, in a move the University of Melbourne has described as “highly irregular”.
A pro-Palestinian group that once occupied one of the university’s buildings and renamed it “Mahmoud’s Hall” says evidence will be handed to the Office of the Prosecutor to investigate “crimes” and refer the university and Mr Maskell to the ICC.
If it proceeds, it will be the first of its kind in the world, with organisers saying they hope other universities follow suit in taking matters to the court at The Hague in The Netherlands.
A University of Melbourne spokesman said of the threat of legal action at the ICC: “We consider the claimed action highly irregular and would not expect the ICC would consider this, given its role and jurisdiction. The university has not received any formal correspondence, nor do we expect to”.
Mr Maskell was approached for comment.
Intended to serve as the “court of last resort”, the ICC could exercise its jurisdiction only when national courts are unwilling to prosecute criminals.
Unimelb for Palestine activists claim to have begun the process of referring the university to the ICC, saying they have evidence of partnerships linked with weapons companies and operations on occupied Palestinian land.
“We’ve taken the step of writing a communique to the Office of the Prosecutor for the ICC, and we will be submitting evidence to show that the university is complicit in genocide and war crimes that have been committed by Israel, and we will be asking the Office of the Prosecutor to investigate those crimes and to hopefully refer the university and Duncan Maskell to the ICC,” a member of the group said on social media.
The threat of legal action comes a week after anti-Israel protesters at the university entered a Jewish physics professor’s office, accusing him of being a “war criminal” during a sit-in that ended only when police were called.
The catalyst for the protests on university grounds is linked to a 25-year-old Gazan student called Mahmoud al-Naouq, who allegedly had accepted a scholarship to study in Australia and picked the University of Melbourne as his first preference.
It is understood the university does not have any record of the enrolment of Naouq, who was reportedly killed in an Israeli air strike on October 20 last year.
“One year ago today, Mahmoud al-Naouq was martyred in Gaza alongside 19 family members. He was supposed to be finishing up his first year of uni with us but instead he was murdered,” the group said.
“In honour of Mahmoud and his family, we are announcing that we are in the process of referring the University of Melbourne and its leadership to the International Criminal Court.”
The Australian attempted to reach out to the activists, who declined to comment.
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