Carla del Ponte

Carla Del Ponte is chief prosecutor in The Hague for the International War Crimes Tribunal for former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. She was born in Lugano in 1947 and opened her own law and notary firm in 1975, three years after competing her studies in law.  In 1981 she became an examining magistrate, and four years later a public prosecutor.  In 1994 she was named the highest criminal prosecutor in Switzerland.  In 1999 she was called upon her current position. Del Ponte was awarded the Peace Prize of Westphalia for her “courageous work”. Early in 2007 she announced that she will resign in September 2007. “Justice is a woman”, United Nations’ ex-Secretary-General Kofi Annan commented on Del Ponte’s fight against organised crime and globalised white-collar criminality.

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