One confession, multiple chronotopes: The interdiscursive authentication of an apology in an international criminal trial

Abstract

This paper presents an interdiscursive analysis of a public apology made before the International Criminal Court (ICC) by a Malian Islamist accused of the destruction of cultural heritage in Timbuktu. It analyzes (a) how the defendant's apology metapragmatically inserts itself into a multiplicity of chronotopes and (b) how the two defense counsels subsequently reformulate that apology as part of a ‘confessional chronotope’, thereby decoupling it from its immediate trial surroundings. The entextualization of this confessional chronotope, and the modifications of the trial's participation framework it proposes, reveal how ICC trial actors navigate the multiple tensions facing this emergent form of globalized criminal justice.