Cuno J Tarfusser, Prosecutor and Chief Prosecutor from 1984 to 2009 in Italy.

In 2009 he was elected judge of the international criminal court by the Assembly of States Parties for a nine-year term. In March 2009, he was sworn in and, at his request, assigned to the Pre-Trial Division. Having been appointed to both Pre-Trial Chambers, Judge Tarfusser was involved in all cases stemming from all situations the ICC had to deal with.

From the case of President of Sudan Omar Al Bashir, to the case of President of Libya Muammar Gheddafi +2; from the case of Vice-president of DRC Jean Pierre Bemba, to the case of Dominic Ongwen, a high ranking officer of the “Lord’s Resistance Army” in Uganda; from the case of Mr Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi, a member of a movement associated with Al Qaeda charged the first time with the war crime of intentionally attacking religious and historic buildings in Timbuktu, to the first case of “offences against the administration of justice” (art. 70 RS).

During his term, he was also appointed twice to the Appeals Chamber and to the Trial Chamber, where he presided over the most high-profile case ever heard by the ICC, namely the trial of the former President of the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, Laurent Gbagbo, and a minister in his cabinet, Charles Blè Goudé, both accused of crimes against humanity committed during the so-called post-election violence of 2010-2011.

The trial began in January 2016 and ended after three years with the acquittal of both defendants. This was not because they were found innocent, but because the prosecutor failed to prove their guilt. After drafting the reasons for the judgment, to which Judge Tarfusser attached a separate opinion, he returned to the Italian judiciary at the end of 2019 as Deputy Prosecutor General at the Milan Court of Appeal.

Judge Tarfusser retired in August 2004.