Carla Del Ponte
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Carla Del Ponte (born February 9, 1947 in Lugano, Switzerland) is currently a Chief UN War Crimes Prosecutor. A former Swiss attorney general, she was appointed prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in August 1999, replacing Louise Arbour. In 2003, the U.N. Security Council removed del Ponte as the Prosecutor for the ICTR, and replaced her there with Hassan Bubacar Jallow in an effort to expedite proceedings in that Court. She remains the Prosecutor for the ICTY. Del Ponte was formerly married, and has one son.
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[edit] Early life and education
Del Ponte was born to an Italian-speaking family in Lugano, Switzerland in 1947. She speaks fluent Italian, German, French and English. Del Ponte studied law in Bern and Geneva, as well as in Britain. She obtained her LL.M. in 1972.
After completing her studies, Del Ponte joined a private law firm in Lugano, which she left in 1975 to set up her own company.
[edit] Prosecutor at the Lugano district
In 1981 she was appointed investigating magistrate, and later public prosecutor at the Lugano district attorney's office. As public prosecutor, Del Ponte dealt with cases of fraud, drug trafficking, arms smuggling, terrorism and espionage.
It was during that period that she and investigative Judge Giovanni Falcone uncovered the link between Swiss money launderers and the Italian drug trade in the so-called "pizza connection" case. As a result Judge Falcone was killed by a car bomb. Del Ponte was more fortunate as the half a tonne of explosives planted in the foundations of her Palermo home were discovered in time for her to escape the attempted assassination unhurt. Falcone's death nurtured Del Ponte's resoluteness to fight organised crime. Her enemies in the Cosa Nostra call her "La Puttana" ("the whore").
[edit] Career at the ICTY
After serving for five years as Switzerland's attorney general, in 1999 Del Ponte joined the ICTY and ICTR to deal with war crimes as prosecutor. Talking about war crimes committed during the Balkan conflicts in the 1990s, Del Ponte said in an interview in late 2001: "Justice for the victims and the survivors requires a comprehensive effort at international and national level."
