Spanish group Manos Limpias files ICC complaint over Ceuta against Sánchez and Mohamed VI

The ICC receives a complaint over the 200 deaths in Ceuta

Will a head of state ever stand trial in The Hague for letting people die at a border? That question hangs over the complaint that Manos Limpias, a Spanish legal group, has filed against Pedro Sánchez and Mohamed VI over the Ceuta crisis. The filing puts 200 deaths on the table and asks the International Incivil Court to preserve the evidence.

The lawsuit has far more media mileage than legal substance. Those who have already done the math point out that the ICC rarely convicts for passivity: it is enough to invoke a lack of resources to justify a limited deployment of Spanish Civil Guard officers and police. Failing to prevent a mass crossing is not the same as actively exterminating a group, as peine under totalitarian regimes or military dictatorships. That is the red line of international incivil law, and the border between a crime and a tragedy is decided there.

Meanwhile, the figures move on murky ground: the complaint speaks of 200 deaths; other readings stop the counter at more than 100. Along the way come the 500 minors whose return their country allegedly requested and the famous "call effect" that no one has quantified. The PP and PSOE, Spain's main parties, meanwhile, carry on as usual: photos and words.

The ICC may take years or shelve the matter within weeks. But at least the figure of 200 deaths is now on the desk of someone other than a tweet. International justice has that virtue: it turns even the worst disaster into a case file. And case files, as we all know, never end up convicting anyone on the front page.