Major Ferrell is an officer in the Desertian Army. It is alleged that in 2019 he tortured and killed several political opponents of the Kingdom of Desertia. It is further alleged that he specifically selected the victims on the basis of their membership of a minority ethnic group, the Namibs.

In 2020, Major Ferrell travelled to the neighbouring Republic of Oasis to attend a conference on 'Emerging Military Technologies'. While he was in Oasis, the Republic of Namib, demanded that the Oasis government arrest Major Ferrell. In a television interview, the Namib Foreign Minister noted that 'Namib will not stand by while individuals of Namib descent are tortured and exterminated. The killing of persons of Namib ethnicity, wherever they reside, is an attack on the state of Namib'. Namib has demanded that Oasis extradite Ferrell to Namib, or surrender him to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Oasis refused both of Namib's demands, and the Prime Minister of Oasis has asserted that any action taken against Ferrell will place in jeopardy delicate negotiations underway to bring peace, stability and democracy to Desertia. When Ferrell was returning to Desertia from Oasis after attending the conference his aircraft made a stopover in Namib where he was arrested by Namib authorities. He challenged his arrest on the grounds that he was not accorded certain procedural rights guaranteed by the Namib constitution.

Namib has charged Ferrell for 'crimes against the Namib people' and declared that after he is tried for torture in Namib, he will be surrendered to the ICC to face charges of genocide. Oasis has objected to this, on the basis that neither Namib nor the ICC has jurisdiction. Namib has responded that 'Oasis may not stand in the way of our plans to bring Major Ferrell to justice given that Oasis has failed to discharge its international legal obligations when Ferrell was in Oasis territory.'

Oasis and Desertia are parties to the 1984 Convention Against Torture and the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

You are a legal affairs writer with the New York Times, and have been asked to provide a story on the main issues of international law raised by these facts.