Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court said they were "actively monitoring" events in Venezuela, where security forces have launched a crackdown on the opposition following the country's disputed presidential election.
Forces loyal to President Nicolas Maduro have arrested more than 2,000 people for demonstrating against the president or questioning his claims to have won a third term in the July 28 election, NBC reported.
In a written statement, the ICC prosecutor's office, Karim Khan, said it was "actively monitoring current events and has received numerous reports of incidents of violence and other allegations following the vote."
The statement said Khan's office is "engaging with the Venezuelan government at the highest level to emphasize the importance of ensuring the rule of law is upheld at this time and to emphasize that all individuals must be protected from violations , which may constitute crimes under the Rome Statute".
The Rome Statute is the court's founding treaty and outlines the crimes over which it has jurisdiction.
Maduro urged Venezuelans to betray election doubters through a government app originally created to report power outages. The government is renovating two gang-dominated prisons to accommodate an expected sharp increase in the number of detained opponents. | BGNES
