WASHINGTON, Afghanistan, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Fatou Bensouda of The Gambia was elected Wednesday at The Hague as the International Criminal Court deputy prosecutor for prosecutions.
She received an absolute majority vote of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of ICC, which is meeting in The Hague this week.
The election was reported by the ICC's Web site and the private Coalition for the International Criminal Court in Washington.
Bensouda, who most recently served as legal adviser and trial attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, won the deputy prosecutor election in the first and only round of a secret ballot, securing 58 votes out of a total of 78.
The United States did not sign the Rome statute, and does not vote in the ICC, sometimes called the World Court.
Bensouda was selected from an initial pool of 198 applicants.
Bensouda began her work on the Rwanda tribunal in 2002. Prior to that, she held a number of high-profile positions as a lawyer, prosecutor and government minister in The Gambia.
