Carla del Ponte

Chief UN War Crimes Prosecutor

(BBC, CNN, The Guardian)

Carla del Ponte 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.

Born on 9 February 1947 in Lugano, Switzerland, del Ponte studied law in Bern and Geneva, as well as in Britain. She obtained her LLM. degree in 1972.

After finishing her studies, del Ponte joined a private law firm in Lugano, which she left in 1975 to set up her own company. 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, drugs 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.

After serving for five years as Switzerland's attorney general, in 1999 del Ponte joined the ICTY and ICTR to deal with war crimes. Talking about war crimes committed during the Balkan conflicts in the 1990s, del Ponte said in an interview in end-2001: "Justice for the victims and the survivors requires a comprehensive effort at international and national level." She saw the trial against the former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, as very important, but she has sworn that she will not stop until all key war crimes suspects have been brought to justice.

Del Ponte was formerly married, and has one son.