In the case of Luis Medina Cantalejo

I would like to take this opportunity to request that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) initiate an investigation against the egregious conduct of Luis Medina Cantalejo of Spain - which, in my opinion, amounts to a Crime Against Humanity (see here) as contemplated by the International Criminal Court Rome Statute. Luis Medina Cantalejo of Spain presided as the referee over the Australia v Italy game, and made a (hopelessly bad) decision that resulted in Italy beating Australia.

Allow me to present my case:

[JURISDICTION]

The ICC has jurisdiction for this case, seeing as both Australia and Spain are signatories to the Rome Statute.

Article 5(1)(b) states that the ICC shall have jurisdiction over Crimes Against Humanity (as articulated in Article 7), and Article 12(1) states that "[a] State which becomes a Party to this Statute thereby accepts the jurisdiction of the Court with respect to the crimes referred to in article 5."

Now if the ever-venerable, erudite public international law academics of the world get their arses in gear and come up with a definition for 'Crime of Aggression', then I'm sure charges could be substantiated under that as well!

Furthermore, there is no Article 98 Bilateral Immunity Agreement (BIA) (which America is so fond of - but see Opinio Juris), so it simply becomes a question of complementarity - ie: Will Spain elect to initiate its own prosecution of this man? Well, if Spains utter disregard for Australia over the Christopher Skase incident is any indication, I would advise that we Australians should not hold our collective breath... so it comes down to prosecuting him by way of the ICC.

[ELEMENTS OF THE CRIME]

Article 7(1)(k): Crime against humanity of other inhumane acts

[Elements]

1. The perpetrator inflicted great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health, by means of an inhumane act.

Exhibit 1 - as evidence of serious injury to mental health, I would like to present... myself. Oh, and 20 million other Australians. See, for example, this photographic evidence and this one too.

3. The perpetrator was aware of the factual circumstances that established the character of the act.

Sure he was... he's a 'professional' referee. No excuse.

4. The conduct was committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population.

Need I mention the sustained attack by the referees in the earlier games in the first round... ie: Croatia v Australia - "Handball? What handball?"

5. The perpetrator knew that the conduct was part of or intended the conduct to be part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population.

[See above response to element 4]
[Breaking news update] This probative article details how the penalty kick that was awarded to Italy was a part of an anti-Australian conspiracy.

I think that the criminal culpability of Luis Medina Cantalejo is self-evident. I call on the Prosecutor to bring criminal proceedings against him immediately.

P.S. Yes, I know that I have a thesis proposal to write, but this was far more important.
P.P.S. For those of you keeping score, you'll note that element 2 is missing from the above section. That's because it's irrelevant.