32. Basis Of Criminal Accountability

Abstract

The principle of the international criminal responsibility of individuals is originally based on the assumption that individuals are the most essential characters in the commission of international crimes and therefore liable to prosecution and punishment and this is regardless of their official position and includes heads of states or governments. The principle of criminal responsibility also extends, in certain circumstances, to the concept of criminal responsibility of organizations and states. The concept of criminal responsibility of individuals in Islamic international criminal law is, more or less, similar to the concept of criminal responsibility in positive international criminal law. Islamic law deals in fact with all the concepts of crimes found within the framework of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Thus, in Islamic criminal jurisdiction similar to the Statute of the ICC, responsibility is based on three key elements. These are legal, physical, and mental elements.Keywords: criminal accountability; international criminal court (ICC); international criminal responsibility; Islamic international criminal law