The ICC (International Criminal Court) will launch an official inquiry into this Venezuela Prosecutor Karim Khan said this during a meeting with President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas on Wednesday (3) about possible crimes against humanity during the crackdown on anti-government protests in 2017.

In 2018, the court launched a preliminary review, and Khan will have to decide whether to postpone it or move on to the next stage. “As we enter this new phase, I urge everyone to give my office space to do its job,” the prosecutor commented.

“After this assessment and this debate, the prosecutor decided to move on to the next step in investigating the truth. We respect his decision as a state, despite telling him we do not share it,” Maduro said.

The two signed the cooperation agreement for the next phase at the Miraflores Palace, the headquarters of the Venezuelan presidency.

Khan, r Arrived in Venezuela on Sunday (31) for a three-day visit, Maduro, thanked Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, Attorney General Tarek William Saab, and representatives of the Supreme Court for their “creative dialogue.”

“I am fully aware of the rifts and political divisions that exist in Venezuela. We are not politicians, we are guided by the principle of legitimacy and the rule of law,” the ICC prosecutor insisted.

After the Hague-based International Court of Justice in The Netherlands launched a preliminary investigation in 2018, Fatou Bensouda, Khan’s predecessor, said there was “reasonable grounds” for believing that crimes against humanity had been committed in the South.

“We are honest and direct in stating that access to documentation and content evaluating the so-called preliminary analysis stage of the Venezuelan state was not allowed. As I told Hon’ble Attorney Karim Khan, we were blind at this stage,” Maduro said.

Khan, who is due to return to Venezuela on an indefinite date, said he had met with “national and international organizations” before and during the visit. In the days when the prosecutor was in Venezuela, relatives of victims of alleged human rights abuses demanded to be “heard” in small street protests.

On Wednesday, about 20 people protested outside the headquarters of the Venezuelan intelligence agency SEBI.