Did a team of 1,000 lawyers and 10,000 medical experts start a second Nuremberg trial against world leaders and public health organizations for pandemic-related crimes against humanity? No, that's not true: Spokespersons for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) told Lead Stories there are no lawsuits like this filed against them. A spokesperson for the International Criminal Court at the Hague said that only the Court's prosecutor decides which cases to file, not outside lawyers like those the claim says are conducting a trial.
The claim has circulated widely online, including in this November 24, 2021 article (archived here) published by biotechexpressmag.com titled "Team of 1,000 lawyers and 10,000 Medical Experts Start Nuremberg 2 Trial against World Leaders for Crimes Against Humanity." It opened:
A team of over 1,000 lawyers and over 10,000 medical experts led by Dr. Reiner Fuellmich have begun legal proceedings against the CDC, WHO & the Davos Group for crimes against humanity.
This is what the article looked like at the time of writing:
The purported trial is the brainchild of Reiner Fuellmich, a German attorney who identifies himself as one of four members of the German Corona Investigative Committee, an unofficial private group he created that proclaims it will convene a Nuremberg War Trials equivalent to try government and health care officials for alleged mis-, mal- and non-feasance related to the COVID-19 pandemic. As of the time of this writing, Fuellmich has provided no specifics about where the suit is filed.
Fuellmich is an attorney licensed in California with an office address in Goettingen, Germany, where his website says he practices consumer protection law.
The first Nuremberg trial began on November 20, 1945, six months after Germany surrendered in World War II. It ran through October 1, 1946. Twenty-four Nazis were indicted on charges that included "genocide" and "crimes against humanity." It was the first time these terms were used in a legal context.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) mainly prosecutes those accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. And those charges "can be only about the criminal responsibility of individuals (not institutions or states)" and only the Court's prosecutor decides which cases to file, according to the ICC spokesperson in an email dated December 9, 2021.
The "WHO is not aware of any such legal proceedings against the organization," a spokesperson wrote in a December 6, 2021, email.
The "CDC is not aware of any lawsuit involving CDC and Mr. Fuellmich," a spokesperson wrote in an email dated December 2, 2021.
Lead Stories has previously shown that Fuellmich's claims are not factual or supportable, including this debunk that says Fuellmich does not prove in a new video that COVID-19 PCR tests do not detect the virus. Another Lead Stories article debunks Fuellmich's claim that his "Coronavirus Investigative Committee" revealed new evidence that COVID-19 is no worse than seasonal flu and can be treated with vitamins and ivermectin.
