ICC scraps hearings against suspected war criminal after hack: Report

The International Criminal Court (ICC) scrapped several planned hearings in a trial against a suspected war criminal over the past days. The canceled hearings followed a cyber attack against the international court in The Hague in which, sources say, the hackers stole a large amount of sensitive data.

The broadcaster NOS noticed the canceled hearings on the ICC website. A lawyer for a defendant in the trial confirmed the cancelations to the broadcaster.

The canceled hearings concerned a case against Alfred Yekatom, an ex-militia leader from the Central African Republic accused of various war cries, including the use of child soldiers, murder, and torture.

It is unclear whether the ICC canceled the hearings because the hackers accessed data related to the case, due to IT problems in the aftermath of the cyber attack, or for an unrelated reason.

Work resumed at the ICC on Thursday, though its IT network was still largely closed, the lawyer told NOS. For example, working remotely is impossible, but the internal office network is functional, he said.

The Dutch government services and the ICC are investigating the cyber attack. They’re trying to find out who was behind it, whether the hackers actually gained access to files, and which files, if any, were affected.