The reputation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has lost its shine of late. There's a growing storm of criticism against ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, and some commentators have even called for him to resign.

So what are the charges being levelled at the five-year-old court, established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes?

Human rights lawyers, academics and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have begun to question Moreno-Ocampo's conduct and competence as head of the court, reports Britain's Guardian newspaper.

Topping the list of rumblings against him is concern over last month's announcement that he was seeking an arrest warrant for genocide and war crimes against the Sudanese president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

Moreno-Ocampo's approach shocked academics and Sudan experts like Alex de Waal, who said the announcement sounded more like a political call for regime change than a statement by the head of the ICC.

"By presenting his case in such stark terms, the prosecutor has made it easy for his critics to dismiss him as ill-informed and driven by a desire for publicity, and has made it harder for the advocates of justice in Darfur to pursue the challenge of calling to account those responsible for crimes no less heinous than genocide," de Waal told the Guardian.

And this is just the latest in a series of problematic incidents for Moreno-Ocampo.

Just weeks before the press conference on Darfur, the trial of Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga - the first war crimes suspect to appear before the court - collapsed amid concerns the prosecutor had used confidentiality agreements to hide evidence supporting the defence.

Others find Moreno-Ocampo's leadership style worrying.

With many of the court's top staff having left in recent years, the ICC runs the risk of being unable to meet the rigorous demands of investigations, the director of Human Rights Watch's international justice programme, Richard Dicker, told the Guardian.

And there's the sticky issue of Moreno-Ocampo being held responsible by an internal panel of judges for "breach of due process" over a case involving a member of staff who "blew the whistle" by making a complaint of sexual misconduct against the prosecutor and was then sacked by him, as the Daily Telegraph's Joshua Rozenberg reports.

The prosecutor firmly denied the allegations and there is no proof any such misconduct occurred. But the tribunal ruled that Moreno-Ocampo should not have taken the decision to dismiss the former media spokesman himself because of his personal interest in the case.

"A prosecutor who seeks to bring a president to justice must have judgment of the highest order. On the strength of these findings, Mr Moreno-Ocampo does not. I repeat what I said here two weeks ago: he should resign immediately," concludes Rozenberg.

There are still some who praise Moreno-Ocampo, like British QC Geoffrey Robertson who has called him "a careful, respectful lawyer with a fine record in prosecuting inhumane Argentine generals", according to the Guardian.

But those who support the ICC must be worried that the mounting campaign against Moreno-Ocampo will cast doubt on the court's ability to prosecute those responsible for crimes against humanity.

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