Moroccan jurist elected to war crimes court on former Yugoslavia

Moroccan jurist, Pro. Mohamed Bennouna, was elected Friday by the UN General Assembly to sit in a chamber of the international court in charge of trying persons who perpetrated serious international humanitarian law in former Yugoslavia.

The Moroccan jurist was elected for a three-year mandate by 98 votes out of a list of nine candidates nominated by the Security Council.

The Muslim, Arab, Africa and French-Speaking candidate matches perfectly the job requirements, consisting in a fair geographic representation of all the world's judiciary systems.

The two other judges are David Anthony Hunt (Austria) and Patrick Robinson (Jamaica).

Born in 1943 in Marrakesh, he was successively member of the Moroccan delegations to the UN conference on sea law and to the international court of justice and served as advisor for several sessions of the general assembly.

He has written several books on international law and was awarded several distinctions, mainly Morocco's national culture prize, Yemen's medal of culture and a French decoration.