Clause 2 - request for arrest and surrender
International Criminal Court [Lords]
5:30 pm
Mr Edward Garnier (Harborough, Conservative)
The hon. Gentleman may not have been present when I suggested the examples of a Prime Minister or Chief of Defence Staff. In my preamble, I stressed that I imputed no motive to the court when describing a case in which it made a request to the Secretary of State regarding the arrest of a Prime Minister or Chief of the Defence Staff. The prosecutor may well have, in his or her view, perfectly good reasons for wanting to bring a British Prime Minister or Chief of the Defence Staff before the court, but our Secretary of State might think it inappropriate in terms of our national interest to release to the jurisdiction of the court our political or military chief. Those are two stark examples; others might occur to the hon. Gentleman.