Association du Barreau près la Cour Pénale Internationale

Barbara Szmatula is a French jurist working at the International Criminal Court (ICC). She has been working as a Case Manager in the Defence team for Mr Patrice-Edouard Ngaïssona before the ICC since January 2020. Barbara studied international law at Panthéon-Assas Paris II and University of Warsaw for a semester, as well as history of art at Université Sorbonne Paris-IV. After obtaining her Masters of International Public Law in Paris, she joined the Defence team of Mr Charles Blé-Goudé before the ICC and worked on various projects related to international law and international politics. She was also an intern for jus Mundi, a legal-tech company dedicated to international law. Barbara speaks French, English, Polish and is currently learning Dutch.

Mélissa Beaulieu Lussier is a Legal Assistant in the Defence team of Mr Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz (Mali) at the ICC since September 2021. She was previously Legal Assistant and Legal consultant in the Defence team of Mr Bosco Ntaganda (DRC) at the ICC between 2014-2015 and 2019-2021. She has experience in every phase of a case at the ICC, from pre-trial to reparations. She has also practiced as a criminal defence attorney for 4 years in Montreal (Canada), particularly in cases of sexual violence. Mélissa was admitted to the Québec Bar in 2014 and obtained a LL.M. from McGill University.

Elsa BOHNE has been working for the Defence team of Patrice-Edouard Ngaïssona before the International Criminal Court for a year and a half as a legal consultant. In November 2023, she will qualify for admission to the Paris Bar (France). She holds a Diploma in Legal Studies from the University of Oxford (Corpus Christi College, United-Kingdom) and a Masters Degree in International Human Rights Law from University Paris II Panthéon-Assas. She also joined a Paris-based criminal law firm as a trainee lawyer and worked for the legal department of the French anti-racism NGO Licra. She speaks French, English and Spanish.

Despoina Eleftheriou is a Greek lawyer, admitted to the Thessaloniki Bar. She studied law at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Faculty of Law, followed by an LLM in International Studies from which she graduated with Honours. In November 2019 she graduated cum laude from the University of Amsterdam with an LLM in International Criminal Law (Joint program with Columbia University in the City of New York). In February 2020, she joined the Defence team for Mr Charles Blé Goudé before the International Criminal Court as a Case Manager. In September 2020, she joined the Defence team for Mr Patrice-Édouard Ngaïssona, and in April 2022 she became a Case Manager. Prior to her joining the Defence at the International Criminal Court, she worked as a trainee lawyer at L. Trampa and Associates, based in Thessaloniki (Greece), dealing mostly with civil, criminal and administrative law cases. She has also worked as a legal trainee at the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the Department for International Relations in Thessaloniki.

Laurence Hortas-Laberge is dual qualified as lawyer in the Province of Quebec and as attorney in the State of New York. She was case manager in the Defence Team of Mr. Ntaganda during the Reparation Phase and is now case manager in the Yekatom Defence where she completed her internship in 2019. Ms Hortas-Laberge has more than two years experience at the International Criminal Court and has a deep interest in issues affecting the workplace. After graduation from the Université de Montréal (Canada) she completed an LL.M in Transnational Law at King's College London (United-Kingdom). During her time in law school, she undertook various research assistant mandates in constitutional law, business and human rights and green finance.  

Audrey MATEO is currently a Legal adviser in the Defence team at the ICC.

In 1997, she completed her law studies in Aix en Provence and Montpellier, France. She then studied in Cape Town, South Africa where she obtained an LL.M. in human rights and international law at the University of the Western Cape. Early in her career, as a legal analyst and agent at the European Commission in Brussels, she worked in the task-Force on the Future on the European Union. She then worked as a Legal officer for 10 years in Chambers at the ICTY and in Chambers at the ICC in the Katanga trial. She lived two years Cambodia where she worked as both a legal and pro bono consultant for human rights NGOs and supporting victims lawyers before the ECCC. She was also a consultant at the at the KSC-SPO. Since 2021, Audrey works as an UNHCR judge at the Cour Nationale du droit d’ Asile in Paris, and she also gives trainings as a consultant on the prevention of sexual harassment at work. As for her current position she is a Legal Advisor with the Abd-Al-Rahman Defence team at the ICC. Finally, she has a passion for drama; she is an actress and produces shows for an amateur theatre company in The Hague.

Florent Pages-Granier has been working as Legal Consultant for the Yekatom Defence Team since 2019. He graduated from the Ecole de Formation des Avocats Centre Sud (EFACS) at the end of 2018, as part of this formation he worked as a trainee lawyer in law firms in France, as well as conducted a six months internship in the Merhi Defence Team at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. His law course was completed at the Law Faculty of the University of Montpellier, in which he completed a Master 1 Droit Pénal et Sciences Criminelles, as well as a Master 2 Droit des Contentieux.