Fatou Bensouda
Chief Prosecutor, International Criminal Court
Date of Birth: 1961
Place of Birth: Banjul
Commentary
Fatou Bensouda graduated with a bachelor’s in law from Ife University, qualified as a barrister at the Nigeria Law School and earned a master’s in law from Malta’s International Maritime Law Institute. She entered the Gambian civil service in 1987, as a public prosecutor.
In 1993, she was Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions and led the Commission of Inquiry into the Financial Activities of Public Corporations (1994–1997). Putschist President Yahya Jammeh appointed her Attorney General and Justice Minister in 1998. They fell out and she returned to private practice in 2000, with a brief stint as General Manager of the International Bank for Commerce (Gambia) in 2002.
From 2001 to 2004, Bensouda was a legal advisor to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Tanzania. As Deputy Prosecutor, she has already spearheaded many of the ICC’s investigations.