2 thoughts on “ICC News – Surpri-ise!”

1. Of course – the Appeals Chamber could still decide that the trial can’t go on and that Lubanga must be released.
   My stress was supposed to be on the “immediately”, referring to the last few paragraphs of the Trial Chamber decision: That decision starts out by saying that because of the stay, there is no basis for further detention, and therefore he basically needs to be released _immediately_. But then it hints so strongly at the possible suspensive effect of an appeal that it was pretty clear that Lubanga would not in fact be released for quite a while yet (leaving aside, for the moment, the question what country he should have been released to – see Kevin Jon Heller’s post.

   Whether or not this is the first step towards some sort of solution which allows the trial to go on, and if so whether that solution will actually resolve all doubts about the fairness of the trial etc., of course remains to be seen. I’m pretty impressed by the Trial Chamber judges so far, but color me skeptical nonetheless.

2. The Appeals Chamber gives suspensive effect to the appeal… that doesn’t mean anything. He could still be set free, right? Opinio Juris apparently knows something that even the judges don’t know yet, but we just have to wait and see. Or did I miss something? This case is so terribly complicated…. does it really have to be this complicated?

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