Fatou Bensouda
Fatou Bensouda | |
|---|---|
Official portrait, 2008 | |
| Gambian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom | |
| Assumed office 3 August 2022 | |
| President | Adama Barrow |
| Preceded by | Francis Rene Blain |
| Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court | |
| In office 15 June 2012 – 15 June 2021 | |
| President | Song Sang-Hyun Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi Chile Eboe-Osuji Piotr Hofmański |
| Preceded by | Luis Moreno Ocampo |
| Succeeded by | Karim Khan |
| Deputy Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court | |
| In office 8 September 2004 – 15 June 2012 | |
| President | Philippe Kirsch Sang-hyun Song |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | James Stewart |
| Minister of Justice and Attorney General of The Gambia | |
| In office 1998–2000 | |
| President | Yahya Jammeh |
| Preceded by | Hawa Sisay-Sabally |
| Succeeded by | Pap Cheyassin Secka |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Fatou Bom Nyang 31 January 1961 Bathurst (now Banjul), British Gambia (now The Gambia) |
| Spouse | Philip Bensouda |
| Children | 3 |
| Alma mater | University of Ife Nigerian Law School International Maritime Law Institute |
| Occupation | International Criminal Law Prosecutor, diplomat |
| Profession | Lawyer |
Fatou Bom Bensouda (/fɑːˈtuː bɛnˈsuːdɑː/; née Nyang; born 31 January 1961) is a Gambian lawyer and former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), who has served as the Gambian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom since 3 August 2022.
She served as prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) from June 2012 to June 2021, after having served as a deputy prosecutor in charge of the prosecutions division of the ICC from 2004 to 2012. She earlier served as a Minister of Justice and Attorney General of The Gambia from 1998 to 2000. She has also held positions as a legal adviser and a trial attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
On 2 September 2020, Bensouda was named a "specially designated national" by the United States government under the Trump administration, forbidding all U.S. persons and companies from doing business with her. The Biden administration reversed course on 2 April 2021 when President Joe Biden revoked EO 13928, removing Bensouda from the SDN list; US Secretary of State Antony Blinken released a statement calling the previous sanctions "inappropriate and ineffective", but restated that Washington would continue opposing ICC's actions relating to Afghanistan and the Palestinian conflict.