International Criminal Court says it can't open probe into Islamic State crimes

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has recently said that it cannot launch an investigation into alleged crimes committed by the Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq and Syria, as the countries had not signed its founding Rome Statute that would give the court jurisdiction.

However, the ICC had the right to prosecute few of the IS fighters who are nationals of countries who have signed up, News24 reported.

Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in a statement that crimes of "unspeakable cruelty," including, mass executions, sexual slavery, rape, torture and mutilation had been reported and genocide too, may have been committed.

Bensouda added that her office had been trying to exercise "personal jurisdiction" over the foreign IS fighters from Tunisia, Jordan, Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and Australia, but options of prosecution remained "limited."

She concluded that the present situation was too "narrow" to open any preliminary examination into the matter.

Due to the increase in crimes by the IS militants in Iraq and Syria, the United Nations Security Council could refer the situation to the ICC, the world's only independent permanent tribunal to try cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.