The Hague asked to investigate Abela, Muscat over migrant pushbacks
The International Criminal Court at The Hague has been asked to investigate Prime Minister Robert Abela and his predecessor Joseph Muscat, as well as other European politicians, over alleged crimes against humanity through the pushback of migrants to Libya. The European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, a German NGO, on Wednesday said it had called for Abela, Muscat and other European leaders and officials to be investigated by the court over what it said was “individual criminal responsibility” for the alleged pushback of irregular migrants to Libya. The EU’s former foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, Italy’s former interior minister Matteo Salvino, as well as his successor, and the former executive director of European border agency Frontex, Fabrice Leggeri, are also named, along with the two Maltese politicians. The NGO is alleging that the politicians conspired with Libya’s coastguard to illegally push back migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea into Europe. The complaint accuses the politicians of committing several “crimes against humanity in the form of the severe deprivation of physical liberty” between 2018 and 2021 by systematically...