The Chief Prosecutor of the HJS sent a request for the arrest of the leader of the Myanmar military government

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, applied to the court to issue an arrest warrant for the head of the military government in Myanmar, General Min.

Khan's written statement published on the HJS page stated that the demand for detention was related to crimes against humanity against Rohingya Muslims, including crimes of deportation and persecution.

Khan said that after an extensive investigation, there are sufficient grounds to hold Min Aung Hlaing criminally responsible for the deportation and persecution of Rohingya Muslims from August 25 to December 31, 2017.

Noting that crimes against Rohingya Muslims were committed by Myanmar's Tatmadaw army with the support of national police, border guards and non-Arakanese civilians, Khan said, "This is the first demand for arrest against a high-ranking government official in Myanmar. There will be other (detention) requests," he said.

The Attorney General noted that testimony, documents, scientific evidence, photographs and video materials collected from more than 1 million Rohingya Muslims who were forced to leave Myanmar for Bangladesh were presented as evidence.

The Attorney General said he had met Rohingya Muslim women many times over the past 3 years at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar region of Bangladesh, which he visited yesterday, and said: “I have met young activists who want to live their lives. I talked to men of all ages, including the elderly and the sick. All of them demanded responsibility for what happened to them," he said.

Khan stressed that the support of the Rohingya Muslim community, the Bangladeshi government and the United Nations (UN) Myanmar Independent Investigation Mechanism (IIM) was crucial in completing the investigation.

The head of Myanmar's military government, Min, took over the post in July 2024 from Vice President Myint Swe, who was on leave due to health issues.

The Myanmar investigation at the ICC

The ICC's investigation into Myanmar/Bangladesh began on November 14, 2019, under the mandate given to the Prosecutor General by the Court's Preliminary Investigation Chamber.

It concluded that the charge may amount to a crime against humanity involving deportation and persecution based on ethnic and/or religious affiliation.

Although Myanmar is not a party to the Rome Statute, the ICC ruled that the court can exercise its jurisdiction because Bangladesh ratified the statute in 2010. Because some of the crimes of deportation and persecution were committed on the territory of Bangladesh.

Ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims

In 2012, clashes broke out between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar's Arakan state. Thousands of people, mostly Muslims, were killed, and hundreds of houses and workplaces were burned.

On August 25, 2017, more than 1 million Rohingya Muslims sought refuge in neighboring Bangladesh following mass violence by the Myanmar military and Buddhist nationalists, who used the simultaneous attacks on border posts in Arakan as an excuse.