Alan Tieger has received the 2023 M.C. Bassiouni Justice Award for his exceptional work as a prosecutor in some of the most consequential international criminal law cases of the past three decades.
Mr Tieger, who has been a senior prosecutor at the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office (SPO) since 2017, was given the award in recognition of his service as a prosecutor of international crimes since 1994. The jury commended inter alia his exemplary standards of meticulous, tireless and uncompromising professionalism, as well as his outstanding advocacy skills and courtroom decorum.
The M.C. Bassiouni Justice Award is granted every year by the Centre for International Law Research and Policy.
Mr Tieger is a US national with extensive experience both from the US and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), that he joined in 1994, as well as the SPO. Mr Tieger was involved in many of the ICTY’s most significant cases, including its first trial, that of Duško Tadić, and its final trial, that of Ratko Mladić.
Before joining the ICTY, Mr Tieger served as a federal prosecutor in the Civil Rights Division Criminal Section of the US Department of Justice from 1987 to 1994, prosecuting cases of racial violence and police brutality nationwide, including the Rodney King case.
At the SPO, Mr Tieger has focused primarily on the Thaci et al. investigation and trial.
Mr Tieger has previously received numerous awards for his domestic and international criminal law work, including the US Department of Justice Distinguished Service Award, the Attorney General’s Commendation for Service to the United States and International Justice, the AAJLJ Pursuit of Justice Award, the Bosnia Charter of Justice Award, and the Award of Recognition-Certificate of Appreciation of the City of Sarajevo.