On 22 May, International Criminal Court (ICC) Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan briefed the UN Security Council (UNSC) on developments related to Libya.
Khan stated that the ICC remains unable to formally close the case against Saif al-Islam Gaddafi due to the absence of an official death certificate. She also stated that recent judicial actions, including proceedings against Khaled al-Hishri, demonstrated genuine progress in changing Libya’s entrenched culture of impunity. Khan confirmed that the ICC currently maintains nine active arrest warrants related to Libya.
During the UNSC session, the United States emphasized concerns regarding judicial fragmentation and the politicization of Libya’s judiciary. Russia, meanwhile, argued that recent ICC investigations into detention facilities and migration-related abuses extend beyond the ICC’s original Libya mandate, which Moscow said should be exclusively linked to the events of 2011 and their aftermath. Following this line of argument to its natural conclusion, Russian representatives suggested that the UNSC should consider closing the Libya file at the ICC entirely.