Today, on behalf of affected Colombian communities, a coalition of human rights groups called on the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate the complicity of executives at Chiquita Brands International in crimes against humanity. To date, no executive has been held to account despite the company's admission that it funneled millions of dollars to Colombian paramilitaries that killed, raped, and disappeared civilians...

...Chiquita...already pled guilty in a U.S. federal court in 2007 to illegally funding Colombian paramilitaries. But accountability for the executives who oversaw and authorized the payment scheme has been elusive: while civil litigation is pending in U.S. courts against Chiquita executives, no criminal prosecution is on the horizon. Colombia has not been able to get jurisdiction over them...

"We request that the ICC expands its current inquiry in Colombia to specifically include Chiquita's executives and officials," said Dimitris Christopoulos, the President of FIDH...

If Colombian authorities do not move ahead with this case, the submission asks the Prosecutor to request formal authorization from its Pre-Trial Chambers to open an investigation into Chiquita's corporate executives...