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ePaper created 2015-11-10, 17:27:36 | version 1.33.00
REDACTED Page 8 of 190 II.Jurisdiction A.Territorial and temporal jurisdiction Since Venezuela ratified the Rome Statute on 7 June 2000,9 the Court has jurisdiction over crimes perpetrated in the territory and/or by nationals of the Venezuela from 1 July 2002. As such the alleged crimes which form the focus of this communication committed since on or about February 2014 until the date of submission of this communication are under the temporal jurisdiction of the Court. B.Material jurisdiction of the Court Upon conducting research of corroborated open source material available on the crimes committed in the territory of Venezuela since February 2014, the authors have concluded that: a)the violence on the territory of Venezuela during the relevant period has reached unprecedented levels, and that during and in the context of this attack, the crimes against humanity of: i) murder pursuant to Article 7(a); ii) imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law pursuant to Article 7(e); iii) torture pursuant to Article 7(f); iv) persecution against any identifiable group on political grounds pursuant to Article 7 (h); and v) other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health pursuant to Article 7 (h) of the Rome Statute were committed. b)there is a wealth of reliable and corroborated open source information which demonstrate that the GoV, under the leadership of President Maduro, has adopted a state policy to attack part of the civilian population perceived as dissidents to prevent, restrict, monitor, punish dissent and cover up crimes in order to retain power by all means including the commission of crimes against humanity. Pursuant to this policy, between as from early February 2014, the GoV’s national security forces under the de jure control of Maduro and pro government armed 9 Venezuela signed on 14 October 1998 and deposited its instrument of ratification of the Rome Statute on 7 June 2000. See: ICC. (2003) Venezuela. International Criminal Courts. [ONLINE] 11 March. Available from: http://www.icc- cpi.int/en_menus/asp/states%20parties/latin%20american%20and%20caribbean%20states/Pages/ve nezuela.aspx [Accessed 19 October, 2015]