Special Features

NPR: Sudanese President Avoids Arrest In South Africa For War Crimes

 

NPR’s Melissa Block interviews David Crane, the former prosecutor of the special court for Sierra Leone, about how President Omar al-Bashir was indicted by the ICC for war crimes in Darfur.MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

As a South African court debated whether to detain a war crime suspect, the man boarded a plane and jetted out of South African airspace. Those who wanted Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir arrested are furious. Bashir’s been indicted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide for atrocities in Darfur. So how did Bashir escape arrest? We’ll put that question to David Crane. He was the chief prosecutor of another African leader who was ultimately convicted of war crimes, Liberia’s Charles Taylor. David Crane, welcome to the program.

DAVID CRANE: It’s good to be with you.

BLOCK: Well, Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, was in South Africa for a meeting of the African Union. South Africa is a party to the International Criminal Court. What happened? How did he manage to slip out of the country without arrest?

CRANE: Well, the South African government, even though they had been notified that a court had directed that he be held pending a hearing related to the ICC indictment, ignored that order and let him flee back to the Sudan.

BLOCK: I believe the South African government, ahead of this meeting, had said that heads of state would have immunity. Is that an unusual thing?

CRANE: Well, what they’re doing here is that they’re trying to gloss over an international warrant for his arrest and basically put everybody on notice that they were not going to hold Bashir despite the court order.

BLOCK: Have you seen other cases like this before where a leader who’s been indicted by the International Criminal Court has been allowed to enter and leave the country without risk of arrest?

CRANE: Other than Bashir, no. And Bashir seems to travel the world flaunting this indictment in the face of the International Criminal Court.

BLOCK: And why is that, do you think?

CRANE: Well, you know, he realizes that his brotherhood, the heads of state of Africa, are going to protect him. He doesn’t feel threatened. He has no respect for the International Criminal Court, and so he doesn’t feel that he is going to be held accountable.

BLOCK: There has been a backlash from other African government officials who say, look, the International Criminal Court is disproportionately targeting African leaders. I was looking at a statement from a South African official who said this is an opportunistic act only meant to pit African leaders against each other in the name of international law. Do they have a point?

CRANE: They really don’t. It’s a political statement. Every case that is before the International Criminal Court related to Africa has either been referred to by the African state that has had the problem or the Security Council has referred it to the International Criminal Court.

BLOCK: Well, when President Bashir got home to Sudan today, there were supporters there at the airport greeting him and some even carrying a coffin that said the ICC to its last resting place. How big a blow do you think this is to the authority of the International Criminal Court?

CRANE: It has to hurt. It sends the wrong signal to dictators and thugs around the world that the ICC may not have the clout, politically, to do anything that it has done related to its mandate of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. This is not a good situation for, you know, international criminal law.

BLOCK: Given that blow to the clout of the International Criminal Court, as you describe it, what would it take to restore the credibility and the power of that body?

CRANE: Well, I think it’s two-sided. One is the International Criminal Court has to continue its work diplomatically and politically in working with the leaders around the world in all state’s parties in ensuring that they are comfortable with working with the International Criminal Court. That’s the state’s parties who have to, in fact, live up to their treaty obligations under international law, and South Africa, today, chose not to do that.

BLOCK: David Crane, thanks for talking with us.

CRANE: My pleasure.

BLOCK: David Crane, former chief prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. He now teaches at Syracuse University College of Law.

Press Release: Global Magnitsky Bill Intorduced in the Canadian Parliament

Press Release

For Immediate Distribution

Global Magnitsky Bill Introduced in the Canadian Parliament

12 June 2015 – Irwin Cotler, Canadian MP, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, and chair of the Justice for Sergei Magnitsky Inter-Parliamentary Group, has introduced the Global Magnitsky Bill to the Canadian parliament. The bill, entitled the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act [C-689], calls for sanctions on international human rights violators anywhere in the world, and is similar to the U.S. Global Magnitsky bill currently making its way through the U.S. Congress.

Explaining his new bill, Irwin Cotler MP said:

“The victims of human-rights violations in Russia and around the world… and the courageous activists who stand up to rights-violating regimes at great personal risk – were on my mind when I rose on Tuesday in the House to present my legislation… Countries that value human rights and the rule of law must use the measures at our disposal to hold violators to account and discourage future violations. Otherwise, we are exposed as having far less concern for these noble principles than our usual rhetoric.”

Introducing the legislation, Irwin Cotler MP paid an emotional tribute to his friend and advocate of Magnitsky sanctions legislation, Boris Nemtsov, who was assassinated near the Kremlin in Moscow three months ago.

“I could almost feel the presence of my late friend Boris Nemtsov, the leader of the democratic Russian opposition who was murdered near the Kremlin earlier this year,” said Irwin Cotler.

Boris Nemtsov publicly supported Irwin Cotler in 2012 when the Magnitsky legislation was first introduced in the Canadian parliament.

“Magnitsky was killed by prosecutors and prison management…Putin government supported the murderers… The idea of the [Magnitsky] Act is to implement sanctions against absolutely concrete corrupt officials and people who are responsible for killing Magnitsky,” said Boris Nemtsov.

“As a country with the low level of corruption and rule of law, Canada has to fight against criminals and against corruption. You are not against Russia, you are against corruption, against criminals. It will be very painful for Russian corrupt bureaucracy to get such kind of law from Canada. Very painful. Because corrupt system in Russia means that they have property outside of the country, they relax outside the country, they send their kids to get education outside…”

(Listen to the full speech by Boris Nemtsov in Canada in 2012, starting after introduction at 4 min.: http://www.ipolitics.ca/2015/03/02/when-nemtsov-came-to-ottawa/)

In March this year, the Canadian House of Commons unanimously supported the initiative to introduce Magnitsky sanctions on individual human-rights violators, including those involved in the 2009 detention, torture and murder of Sergei Magnitsky. A similar motion was adopted in the Canadian Senate a few weeks later. Yet, the Canadian Government has not acted on the call from parliamentarians.

“There is still time for the [Canadian] government to either take over my bill or to introduce similar legislation of its own, out of respect for the unanimous will of Canadian MPs, and out of solidarity with the victims of human-rights violations and those who struggle valiantly on their behalf, in Russia and around the world,” said Irwin Cotler, MP.

For more information, please contact:

Magnitsky Justice Campaign

+44 2074401777

e-mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

website: www.lawandorderinrussia.org

Twitter: @KatieFisher__

Video of Irwin Cotler MP introducing the Global Magnitsky Bill in the Canadian Parliament:


New Canadian Global Magnitsky Bill, C-689: “An Act to enact the Global Human Rights Accountability Act and to make related amendments to the Special Economic Measures Act and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act”

http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=E&Mode=1&DocId=8035881
Original 2012 Canadian Magnitsky Bill, C-339: “An Act to condemn corruption and impunity in Russia in the case and death of Sergei Magnitsky”

http://www.parl.gc.ca/LegisInfo/BillDetails.aspx?billId=6253662&Language=E&Mode=1
The Justice for Sergei Magnitsky Inter-Parliamentary Group website:

http://ipg-magnitsky.org/

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Press Release: Parliament Calls on EU Foreign Policy Chief to Enact EU-wide Magnitsky Sanctions on Russian Human Rights Abusers

11 June 2015 – The European Parliament has adopted the Magnitsky Sanctions Motion which demands that EU Foreign Affairs chief Federica Mogherini act “without delay” and introduce sanctions on Russian officials involved in the Magnitsky case.

The motion proposed by European Parliament’s Rapporteur on the state of EU-Russia relations Gabrielius Landsbergis, MEP, was adopted by 494 votes to 135, with 69 abstentions.

The Magnitsky Sanctions motion highlights the assassinations of Boris Nemtsov, Sergey Magnitsky, Anna Politkovskaya, Natalya Estemirova, Alexander Litvinenko and others, and demands their proper, independent investigations.

 The Magnitsky Sanctions motion adopted by the European Parliament states:

 “European Parliament…reiterates its call on the Council to … adopt, upon a proposal which should be submitted without delay by the VP/HR, restrictive measures for the officials involved in the well-documented Magnitsky case.”

Previously, Ms Mogherini, EU VP/HR (Vice President and High Representative) for foreign affairs and security policy, strongly opposed the enactment of EU-wide Magnitsky sanctions, in spite of four resolutions by the European Parliament in their favour. In a letter to the European parliament members on 12 January 2015, Ms Mogherini steadfastly refused to impose sanctions on Russian officials in the Magnitsky case.

“I consider that additional sanctions targeting human rights violators would not be the appropriate response as they would risk neither triggering a change in policy nor improving the human rights situation,” said Ms Mogherini at the time in her letter.

One and a half month after Ms Mogherini’s refusal, Boris Nemtsov, the leading proponent of the EU Magnitsky sanctions, and a key Russian leader of the opposition to president Putin, was assassinated next to the Kremlin.

In his public appearances before his assassination, Boris Nemtsov stated his belief that Magnitsky sanctions, enacted by the United States under the “US Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012,” represented the “most powerful instrument against killers and cleptocrats” (see in Russian at 27 min of youtube video debate with Boris Nemtsov: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n1AJ0oCIJE)

Boris Nemtsov campaigned for the adoption of Magnitsky sanctions by the EU and for the expansion of the US Magnitsky sanctions list.

“We owe it to the memory of the courageous Russian patriots Sergei Magnitsky and Boris Nemtsov to create consequences for those in Russia who act with impunity and continue to cover up brutal murders with a straight face in the international settings. Inaction by Ms Mogherini today, after the fifth vote by the European Parliament, is no longer acceptable,” said Bill Browder, leader of the Magnitsky Justice campaign.

 

For more information, please contact:

 Magnitsky Justice Campaign

+44 2074401777

e-mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

website: www.lawandorderinrussia.org

Twitter: @KatieFisher__

 

 

Press Release: Russian Government Continues to Eliminate Evidence in the Magnitsky Case by Destroying Video Recordings of Magnitsky’s Last Hours in Detention

Russian Government Continues to Eliminate Evidence in the Magnitsky Case by Destroying Video Recordings of Magnitsky’s Last Hours in Detention

5 June 2015 – The Russian authorities have told Sergei Magnitsky’s mother that they have destroyed the video recordings of Sergei Magnitsky’s last hours before his killing in Matrosskaya Tishina detention center.

In correspondence with Sergei Magnitsky’s mother, General Major V.Alyshev, Deputy Head of the Russian Investigative Committee’s Main Investigative Department, has confirmed the Russian authorities have destroyed the video records from Matrosskaya Tishina.

“Video recordings from video surveillance cameras …have not been seized due to objective reasons– due to the expiry of the period of storage on the disc,” said General Major of the Russian Investigative Committee V. Alyshev.

Sergei Magnitsky was transferred to Matrosskaya Tishina detention center at 6:30 pm of 16 November 2009. Less than three hours later he was found dead with signs of bodily injuries in the isolation cell. The official Russian investigation into his death found that he died from a heart problem and that he had caused his own injuries.

An independent domestic investigation by the Moscow Public Oversight Commission concluded Sergei Magnitsky was kept in detention in torturous conditions, that civilian doctors were not allowed by detention center officials to enter his cell for an hour and eighteen minutes before his death, while a team of eight detention center officers restrained him and beat him. Immediately after Magnitsky’s death, detention center officials showed some video footage of Sergei Magnitsky to members of the Moscow Public Oversight Commission. However, video recordings from Matrosskaya Tishina have been absent from the Magnitsky’s death case investigation file.

In response to the request from Magnitsky family about the whereabouts of the video footage from Matrosskaya Tishina, the Russian Investigative Committee reported that the recording has been destroyed:

“[Video recording] is automatically deleted from the hard drive after 30 days, and new information is recorded in its place,” General Major Alyshev has informed Magnitsky’s mother.

“It is consistent with the overall cover-up of Sergei Magnitsky’s murder that the key video evidence from the crime scene was not preserved. An investigation should be opened into those who allowed the destruction of the videos,” said a representative of Justice for Sergei Magnitsky campaign.

 

For more information, please contact:

 Magnitsky Justice Campaign

+44 2074401777

e-mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

website: www.lawandorderinrussia.org