ICC war crimes tribunal hobbled by hacking incident

The International Criminal Court is operating with strong limitations on its digital systems after a hacking incident, sources and lawyers who work at the war crimes court said on Thursday.

Two lawyers at the court, and a source close to it who asked not to be identified, said it had disconnected most of its systems that can access the internet, that employees cannot access e-mail and employees who are not working on site cannot access documents.

The ICC, based in the Dutch city of The Hague, first disclosed a "cybersecurity incident" on Tuesday, saying it was trying to ensure the tribunal's "core work" continued. A court spokesman declined further comment on Thursday.

Hearings in the trial of two men accused of leading militias that attacked Muslim civilians in the Central African Republic resumed on Thursday.

However the court's livestream was unavailable and there was no sound in the galleries where the public and journalists can view proceedings, court staff told media.

"As the defence team, we do have limited access to the court systems," lawyer Geert-Jan Knoops, who represents one of the suspects, Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona, told Reuters. Knoops was in court on Thursday.

Ngaissona and co-defendant Alfred Yekatom have pleaded not guilty.

The ICC is the permanent tribunal established in 2002 to try war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Mylene Dimitri, who is defending Yekatom, told Reuters she was exchanging information with other parties using USB flash drives and paper binders. That means delivering information personally from office to office as the court's usual electronic file sharing and email did not work.

"It slows us down," she said, adding that only live witnesses were being heard during the proceedings and testimony via videolink from others had been postponed.

Dimitri said she had pushed for the case to continue even with restrictions to avoid her client's trial being prolonged.

"We have no idea how long this situation will continue," she added.