Al Jazeera submits case of slain journalist Shireen Abu Akleh to ICC

The case of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed by Israeli forces, was submitted by the TV network Al Jazeera to the International Criminal Court on Tuesday.

The channel claimed to have "unearthed new evidence" on the Palestinian-American's death, who was shot on May 11 while she was covering a raid of the Israel army in Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

A complaint can be filed by any group or person to the ICC prosecutor asking for an investigation, however, the ICC does not have the obligation to take on every case.

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In its submission, Al Jazeera highlighted "new witness evidence and video footage (that) clearly show that Shireen and her colleagues were directly fired at by the Israeli Occupation Forces".

"The claim by the Israeli authorities that Shireen was killed by mistake in an exchange of fire is completely unfounded," the Qatar-based channel stated.

Last year, a probe was launched by the ICC into war crimes in the Palestinian territories, however, Israel is not a member of the ICC and disputes the jurisdiction of the court.

On September 5, the Israeli army had accepted that Abu Akleh was shot by one of its soldiers after she was mistakingly presumed to be a militant. However, Israel refused to co-operate with any external investigation into the death of Abu Akleh.

"No one will investigate IDF (Israeli military) soldiers and no one will preach to us about morals in warfare, certainly not Al Jazeera," said Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid in a statement.

Lawyer claims 'Complete cover-up'

The slain reporter was wearing a helmet and a bulletproof vest marked "Press" when she was shot by the bullet in the Jenin refugee camp. The ICC was urged by the reporter's niece to investigate the death of the journalist.

"The evidence is overwhelmingly clear, we expect the ICC to take action," she said while addressing the press conference, adding that they had requested to meet prosecutor Karim Khan.

"My family still doesn't know who fired that deadly bullet and who was in the chain of command that killed my aunt,” she added.

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Meanwhile, Lawyer Rodney Dixon claimed that there has been a "complete cover-up" by the Israeli government over the killing of Abu Akleh.

He said that the journalist's killing was part of Israel's "systematic and widespread campaign" against Al Jazeera, which also included bombing the office of Al Jazeera last year.

"There's a clear attempt to shut Al Jazeera down and silence it. We are hopeful that there will now be justice for Shireen,” Dixon stated.

The lawyer said that no formal meeting has taken place with the prosecutor's office but they have handed over evidence to the evidence unit of the ICC.

(With inputs from agencies)