Myanmar: ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrant for junta chief

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday applied for an arrest warrant for Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing.

He said that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the junta leader was involved in crimes against the Rohingya Muslim minority.

A panel of three judges will now decide whether to issue the warrant.

Over 730,000 Rohingya people fled to neighboring Bangladesh from Myanmar's northwestern Rakhine State.

Myanmar is not a signatory to the Rome Statute that established the ICC, but 2018 and 2019 rulings found that the court had jurisdiction over alleged crimes that partially took place in Bangladesh, which is an ICC member.

The announcement comes several days after theICC issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Chief Yoav Gallant and Hamas leader Mohammed Deif.