Late October 2017, the Sixth Committee (“Legal”) of the United Nations General Assembly concluded its debate on several items on its agenda during the seventy-second session, including the immunity of state officials from criminal investigation and prosecution, particularly for the most serious international crimes,

On October 19, 2017, Canada’s “Magnitsky-style” law, the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act (Sergei Magnitsky Law) received royal assent and came into force. Consistent with the category of legislation identified with its namesake, the Magnitsky Law was enacted as a criminal law to prevent and combat gross human rights violations such as those suffered by the Russian tax lawyer. Mr. Sergei Magnitsky was detained for 11 months and eventually tortured to his death in a Moscow prison in 2009 for his role in uncovering a $230 million tax fraud scheme involving various high level Russian officials. This relatively brief legislation commences with an extraordinary 600-word Preamble that reads like an historical narrative of – and tribute to – Sergei Magnitsky, Alexander Litvinenko, Boris Nemtsov and Nadiya Savchenko. It is the exercise of legislation to serve as political condemnation of Russia for “gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.” Canada is the fourth country to enact such legislation, following the lead of the United States, the United Kingdom and Estonia.

On October 27, 2017, Burundi became the first State Party to withdraw from the 1998 Rome treaty creating the International Criminal Court (ICC), in accordance with the provisions of Article 127 of the ICC Statute. On October 21, 2016, after Cabinet approval, the South African government sent an “instrument of withdrawal” letter to the United Nations Secretary-General explaining its intention. Written notice to withdraw from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been submitted to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The withdrawal has taken effect one year after the Secretary-General received the notification.

On November 9, 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Anthony “Tony” Mace and Robert Zubiate, two former executives at the Oil Services Company (SBM Offshore NV), a Dutch oil and gas services company, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) for their roles in a scheme to bribe foreign government officials in Brazil, Angola and Equatorial Guinea.

On November 7, 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the unsealing of an indictment against five individuals of Rolls-Royce plc and its subsidiaries (Rolls-Royce).  The charges involved two former executives, a former Rolls-Royce employee, a former intermediary for Rolls-Royce in Kazakhstan, and an executive of an international engineering consulting firm.  The indictment charges all of the defendants for their alleged participation in a scheme to pay bribes to foreign government officials for the benefit of a U.S.-based Rolls-Royce subsidiary, including obtaining a contract to supply equipment and services to power a gas pipeline from Central Asia to China.

On November 3, 2017, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), announced her decision to request an investigation into crimes allegedly committed in connection with the armed conflict in Afghanistan. On the same day, the Presidency immediately assigned the situation in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to Pre-Trial Chamber III, with the following composition: Judge Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua, Judge Chang-ho Chung, and Judge Raul C. Pangalangan.

Ms. Fatou Bensouda, heading the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) stated, “[i]n due course, I will file my request for judicial authorization to open an investigation, submitting that there is a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in connection with the armed conflict in Afghanistan.”

Victims of the tragic civil war in Syria continue to flee to other countries for safety. Justice has been difficult to deliver to perpetrators of the most heinous crimes committed in the conflict, but some victims are now leveraging the judicial systems in their new countries to make the Syrian authorities responsible for crimes against humanity. In doing so, these refugees are helping push the boundaries of a concept known as “universal jurisdiction,” which enables courts to have jurisdiction over certain war crimes.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivered remarks to the International Association of Chiefs of Police on Monday, October 23, in which he announced that the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang would be elevated to priority status for the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF). According to the DOJ, this move is the next step in “fulfilling President Trump’s goal of stamping out the brutal transnational crime organization.” During his remarks, Sessions repeatedly emphasized the significance of the threat that MS-13 poses to U.S. national security by equating the street gang with international drug cartels, who both he and the current administration have blamed for the current opioid epidemic.

On October 24, 2017, Australian citizen Guan Zong Chen (“Graham Chen”) pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Boston, Massachusetts, on charges that he led a conspiracy to illegally export (smuggle) $700,000 worth of endangered and protected wildlife items made from rhinoceros horn, elephant ivory and coral from the United States to China.

On October 27, 2017, a French court found Teodorin Nguema Obiang Mangue, 48, and the second Vice President of Equatorial Guinea, guilty of embezzlement in absentia.  The court gave him a three-year suspended prison sentence, a suspended 30 million euros ($34.78 million) fine, and ordered the confiscation of more than 100 million euros worth of his French assets.