The family of Palestinian activist Nizar Banat, who died in the custody of the Palestinian security forces, has filed a lawsuit with the International Criminal Court.
Nizar Banat, an outspoken critic of the Palestinian Authority, was beaten on the head and body during a June 2021 raid in the occupied West Bank.
His family has urged the International Criminal Court to prosecute those responsible, saying it has lost confidence in the Palestinian judiciary.
This is the first time that a Palestinian has referred his leadership to the court.
The PA did not comment on the move, but it apologized for the girls' death and charged 14 low-ranking security officers with participating in beatings and other crimes.
Banat, 42, became famous for his social media posts accusing powerful individuals of corruption and calling on Western countries to stop providing financial aid to the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the West Bank that are not under full Israeli control.
Nizar was arrested and allegedly tortured eight times by Palestinian Authority forces in the years leading up to his death.
On June 24, 2021, Banat was sleeping in his cousin's house in Hebron, in the southern West Bank, when officers of the Preventive Security Service raided him. His family alleges that the officers beat him with metal rods before taking him away. He later died while still in their custody.
A Palestinian human rights group said an autopsy indicated the girls' deaths were "unnatural", with evidence of "bruises and contusions on many areas of the body", including the head, neck and chest, as well as "binding marks on the wrists and broken ribs". .
His death sparked rare protests in Ramallah, where crowds demanded the resignation of President Mahmoud Abbas, who has been in power since 2005 and canceled a long-delayed election last year.
The Military Prosecution later charged a commander in the Preventive Security Service and 13 other officers who participated in the arrest. They all pleaded not guilty at the start of their military trial in September 2021.
The Banat family's lawyer, Hakan Kamuz, said that the "multiple delays, smearing of witnesses, and hideous provisional release" of the defendants for a nine-day holiday in June blighted the proceedings so much that they decided to drop the military case.
Instead, they decided to provide a referral to the ICC Prosecutor, who will conduct a preliminary examination to decide whether there is a reasonable basis to launch an investigation
"For those of us who live in corrupt countries where true justice is elusive, the International Criminal Court remains our hope for a depoliticized investigation and prosecution of criminals," Banat's brother, Ghassan, said outside court in The Hague on Thursday
"The manner in which they killed him, with which they are trying to escape punishment, reflects the level of lack of accountability and moral corruption that this regime suffers from," he added.