Secretary-General appoints Judge Iain Bonomy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to serve as Mechanism Judge

On 6 February 2020, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. António Guterres, appointed  Lord Iain Bonomy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the roster of Judges of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (“Mechanism”), with immediate effect.

Judge Bonomy was educated in Scotland, graduating from Glasgow University. He practised as a solicitor from 1970 until 1983. In 1984, he was admitted to the Scottish Bar and, in 1993, was appointed Queen’s Counsel. From 1990 to 1996, he served as a criminal prosecutor (Advocate Depute and Home Advocate Depute) and, in 1997, was appointed as Senator of the College of Justice (Judge in the Court of Session and the High Court of Justiciary, the highest court in Scotland). From 2004 to 2009, Judge Bonomy served as a Judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (“ICTY”), where he sat on many high-profile cases and presided over the trial of former Serbian President Milan Milutinović. Following his departure from the ICTY, Judge Bonomy was appointed as a Judge of the Court of Appeal in Scotland, and subsequently served as a Surveillance Commissioner for the United Kingdom and later a Judicial Commissioner in the Office of the Investigatory Powers Commissioner.

Judge Bonomy was appointed to the Mechanism’s roster of Judges following the resignation of Judge Ben Emmerson on 19 July 2019, and will serve the remainder of Judge Emmerson’s term of office.

In accordance with its Statute, the Mechanism has a roster of 25 independent Judges who serve both branches of the Mechanism.