Freedom Watch based in Washington DC has approached the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the prosecutor’s office to open an enquiry against China over COVID-19 pursuant to Article 15. Freedom Watch is a public interest nono-profit foundation whose mission is to investigate and prosecute gocernment corruption abuse. The foundation wants an enquiry of the origins, creation, stockpiling, and negligent handling of a variation of a type of coronavirus known as COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, by the defendants -the People’s Republivc of China, and the other defendants, including but not limited to President Xi Jinping and his Politburo.
"This is a complaint for the opening of an inquiry by the Prosecutor at the International
Criminal Court under Article 15 of the Rome Treaty to investigate the urgent and important question of the likely creation and release, accidental or otherwise, of a variation of coronavirus known as COVID-19 by the People's Republic of China and its
agencies and officials and functionaries as a biological weapon in violation of China's
agreements under international treaties, and the subsequent reckless and criminal release
from the Wuhan Institute of Virology into the city of Wuhan, China, in Hubei Province", says Freedom Watch Founder and Chairman Larry Klayman.
The Defendants are the People's Republic of China (“PRC”), The People's Liberation Army, The Wuhan Institute of Virology- a biological laboratory, Shi Zhengli- the Director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China and Major General Chen Wei of China's PLA, the Chinese military's top epidemiologist and virologist at the PLA's Academy of Military Medical Sciences. The complainants also allege among other acts that the defendants failed to prevent the Wuhan Institute of Virology's personnel from becoming infected with the bioweapon and
then carrying the virus out into the surrounding community and proliferation into the United States.
Freedom Watch also raises a complaint for the Defendants’ violation of international treaties and international law and obligations by withholding medical information on the spread of the COVID-19 virus, resulting in thousands of avoidable and unnecessary deaths and illnesses and massive world economic damage caused by the delay in sharing medical information about the spread of the virus.
According to Klayman the defendants violated the law of nations, established U.S. law, international laws, treaties and norms, including but not limited to those sections previously set forth: The Declaration on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism and citations therein incorporated by reference adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 9, 1994 (GA Res. 49/50); The Anti-Terror Act, 18 U.S.C. 113B; The Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, Pub. L. No. 104-132, 110 Stat. 1214 (1996); The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (“USA Patriot Act”), Pub. L. No. 107-56, 115 Stat. 271 (2001); The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide; Art. 2, December 9, 1949, 78 UNTS;
"This new and engineered virus has been designated as COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2.
COVID-19 is an extremely dangerous disease, because it has an extremely aggressive nature, and was designed to mutate from person to person.
“It spreads very quickly and easily, no vaccine exists yet on account of it being a new disease, the means of transmission are not fully known with certainty, and treatments are only just being worked out, and the disease appears to be about ten times as deadly as the flu. The first case eventually confirmed to be COVID-19 infection by China’s admission was on December 8, 2019.
“However, doctors in Wuhan and throughout China were also ordered not to disclose any information about the new disease to the public." Freedom Watch insists that with respect to China's handling of the Wuhan Coronavirus by suppressing medical reporting, there is sufficient evidence that the Communist Party of China is guilty of crimes against humanity.
The statute specifically states: “[C]rimes against humanity do not need to be linked to an armed conflict and can also occur in peacetime, similar to the crime of genocide. “The Rome statute goes on to state specifically: Another important distinction is that in the case of crimes against humanity, it is not necessary to prove that there is an overall specific intent.
“Only one of the eleven criminal acts defined needs to be committed to qualify for prosecution in the International Criminal Court", argued Klayman in court documents dated March 30 2020.
The complainant argues that had China not unlawfully suppressed information about the new militarily engineered virus and its spread, according to researchers at the University of Southampton, in the United Kingdom, the spread of COVID-19 would have been reduced by as much as 95%.
It is the complainant's contention that the defendants systematically, intentionally, and unlawfully withheld from the international community and medical community the information needed to fight the spread and effects of the new viral disease.
The defendants withheld critical medical information that would have dramatically improved the medical response of nations worldwide, advanced the development of a vaccine and treatments by a couple of crucial months, and slowed and lessened the spread of the viral disease before it became so widespread, argues Freedom Watch in the papers. "Complainants respectfully request that the prosecutor’s office of the ICC open an investigation to determine the origins of the COVID19 virus including its likely release from Wuhan institute of virology and the defendants’ willful interference with attempt to fight the spread of the disease and develop treatments, tests and a vaccine and once the fact alleged herein are confirmed, to conduct criminal war crimes prosecution to and try, convict and sentence to life imprisonment the defendants", prayed Freedom Watch in their papers.