Dear all,
Please find below the news headlines on international criminal justice from February. You can find past headlines and other relevant resources on the International Association of Prosecutors’ (IAP) Forum for International Criminal Justice(FICJ) website.
The FICJ is password protected and only IAP members have access. This is meant to facilitate open and frank dialogue between prosecutors. Please contact Evie Sardeman, Office Manager (OM@iap-association.org) or Janne Holst Hübner, Communication Manager (CM@iap-association.org) with questions about IAP membership and website access.
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28 February
Haiti’s ex-ruler ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier attends court
(Source: BBC News)
Haiti’s former ruler Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier has appeared in court for a hearing to determine if he can be charged with crimes against humanity. At the hearing he denied responsibility for abuses carried out during his time as president, between 1971 and 1986. Human rights groups say hundreds of political prisoners were tortured or killed under his rule…
Bangladesh war crimes tribunal sentences Jamaat-e-Islami leader to death
(Source: Jurist)
The International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh (ICTB) on Thursday sentenced to death Jamaat-e-Islami party (JI) leader Delwar Hossain Sayeedee. Following the death sentence, violence between police and activists from Sayeedee’s party ensued throughout the country resulting in at least 30 deaths while more than 300 were wounded…
ICTY overturns ex-Yugoslav army chief’s war crimes conviction
(Source: Jurist)
The appeals chamber of the ICTY on Thursday overturned the convictions of ex-Yugoslav army chief Momcilo Perisic for crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war. The appeals chamber found that the court’s trial chamber had failed to apply the law correctly when it determined that “specific direction is not an element of aiding and abetting liability.”…
27 February
Trial delay likely for Kenya’s ICC accused
(Source: Al Jazeera)
Kenyan presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta and his running mate, William Ruto, have won a reprieve in their legal fight against accusations of crimes against humanity…”At the same time, the prosecution recognises that logistical constraints such as courtroom availability make a trial on April 11, 2013, unlikely. Therefore, the prosecution does not object to a reasonable adjournment, to allow time for protective measures to be put in place for the witnesses whose identities remain to be disclosed and to provide the defence with adequate time to prepare.”..
26 February
Britain pledges £1.4 mn for Cambodia war crimes court
(Source: AFP)
Britain pledged £1.4 million ($2.1 million, 1.6 million euros) on Monday to fund Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge war crimes court, which is close to running out of money. British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the court, which is trying top leaders of the murderous communist regime that ruled Cambodia in the late 1970s, was one of the most important since the post-World War II Nuremberg trials…
23 February
Uruguay high court declares dictatorship trials unconstitutional
(Source: Jurist)
The Uruguay Supreme Court ruled on Friday that a 2011 law allowing for investigations into crimes committed during the country’s 1973-1985 dictatorship is unconstitutional. Uruguay’s legislature passed the law in 2011, allowing the government to investigate human rights violations that occurred during the 12-year dictatorship and not subjecting these violations to a statute of limitations…
21 February
Jury convicts Rwandan of lying about genocide to enter U.S.
(Source: Los Angeles Times)
A year after her first trial ended without a verdict, a Rwandan-born woman was convicted by a second jury Thursday of lying about her role in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide to gain entry to the United States. A judge immediately stripped 43-year-old Beatrice Munyenyezi of her citizenship, 10 years after she was granted it in the same Concord, N.H., courthouse where her two trials took place. Munyenyezi became the fourth member of her family to be convicted of crimes stemming from Rwanda’s 1994 political turmoil and genocide, which left hundreds of thousands of people dead across the East African nation…
20 February
I. Coast’s Gbagbo ‘responsible’ for post-poll bloodshed, ICC hears
(Source: AFP)
Ivorian ex-president Laurent Gbagbo bears responsibility for some of the worst crimes committed during a bloody post-election standoff in the west African nation two years ago, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor said on Tuesday. “We will show that Mr Gbagbo and forces under his control are responsible for the death, rapes, serious injuries to, and arbitrary detention of countless law abiding citizens,” Fatou Bensouda told judges at the Hague-based ICC…
Rwanda: ICTR Speaks Out On Genocide Cases in France
(Source: allAfrica)
The Registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has said that structural concerns are the reason France has delayed to try cases of Wenceslas Munyeshyaka and Laurent Bucyibaruta which were referred to Paris under the tribunal’s completion strategy in 2007…
18 February
U.N. Rights Officials Urge Syria War Crimes Charges
(Source: New York Times)
The United Nations Security Council should refer Syria to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to prosecute those responsible for war crimes and other abuses committed in nearly two years of conflict, Carla del Ponte, a United Nations human rights investigator, said Monday…
17 February
Rwandan jailed in Norway genocide trial
(Source: The Local)
A 47-year-old Rwandan was on Thursday jailed for 21 years by an Oslo court for being complicit in the massacres of more than 2,000 people in his home country in 1994. Sadi Bugingo, a 47-year-old Hutu who has lived in Norway since 2001, was found guilty of being an accessory to genocide for ensuring that orders issued for the killings were carried out. He did not face any charges of having carried out any killings himself. The 21-year-sentence demanded by prosecutors is the maximum available in Norway…
14 February
Bangladesh: Post-Trial Amendments Taint War Crimes Process
(Source: Human Rights Watch)
Retroactive legislation that violates fair trial standards undermines the legitimacy of the work of Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT). The amendments were offered to enable an appeals court to overturn a life sentence imposed on Abdul Qader Mollah and impose the death penalty…
11 February
Kenya’s Odinga taunts vote rival over war crimes court
(Source: Reuters)
Raila Odinga, the frontrunner in Kenya’s presidential election, taunted his rival Uhuru Kenyatta in a debate on Monday, asking how he would be able to rule from the Hague, where Kenyatta goes on trial shortly on charges of crimes against humanity…
10 February
Bangladesh to amend war crimes law amid protest
(Source: Reuters)
Bangladesh is planning to amend a law to allow the government to appeal for tougher penalties for war criminals, the law minister said on Sunday, the sixth day of protests since a convicted Islamist leader got a sentence many people think was too light…
Rwanda: ICTR’s Weak Legacy Further Tarnished By Acquittals
(Source: allAfrica)
While the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has in the past already been criticized for having a relatively low output compared to its huge budget, at least it contributed to justice with its convictions and a few mostly justified acquittals.That legacy, however, is now being eroded by a series of incomprehensible acquittals by the appeals chamber, especially of people who were high-ranking officials at the time of the Genocide against the Tutsis…
9 February
Senegal war crimes court starts work on Habre trial
(Source: AFP)
A special African court set up to try ex-Chadian president Hissene Habre for war crimes and crimes against humanity officially began its work on Friday in Senegal, where he has lived in exile for over two decades. The trial against Habre, delayed for years by Senegal where he has lived since being ousted in 1990, will set a historic precedent as until now African leaders accused of atrocities have only been tried in international courts…
7 February
Thousands in Bangladesh war crimes protest
(Source: Aljazeera)
Tens of thousands of protesters have rallied in cities across Bangladesh for a third consecutive day, demanding the execution of a religious political leader who was sentenced to life in prison for war crimes committed during the country’s 1971 war of independence. The sentencing of Abdul Quader Mollah by a war crimes tribunal on Tuesday for charges including murder, rape and torture was the second verdict in trials that have reopened the wounds of Bangladesh’s struggle to break away from Pakistan…
ICC: Libya Must Hand Over Gadhafi Spy Chief
(Source: VOA News)
International Criminal Court judges ordered Libya on Thursday to hand over Moammar Gadhafi’s former spy chief and let him see his lawyer, raising the stakes in a dispute over who has the right to try the deposed strongman’s top lieutenants. The statement placed the Hague-based court on a collision course with Libya’s new rulers, who say Gadhafi-era leaders in their custody should face local justice over charges of mass killings and other atrocities…
6 February
Kenyan war crimes suspect asks international court to reconsider trial decision
(Source: Washington Post)
One of four prominent Kenyans charged with involvement in crimes including murder and deportation following disputed elections wants the International Criminal Court to reconsider its decision to put him on trial, saying it was based on “fraudulent evidence.” In a written motion released Wednesday, lawyers for Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta have asked the court to halt the April 11 start of his trial and again assess whether prosecution evidence is strong enough to warrant his prosecution…
5 February
Bangladesh: Abdul Kader Mullah gets life sentence for war crimes
(Source: BBC News)
A war crimes tribunal in Bangladesh has found a leader of the main Islamist party guilty of crimes against humanity during the war for independence from Pakistan in 1971. Abdul Kader Mullah of Jamaat-e-Islami, who denied all the charges, was sentenced to life in prison. Official estimates say more than three million people were killed in the war…
A flawed international tribunal [Bangladesh]
(Source: The Law Society Gazette)
…Sadly, the so-called international tribunal, which is trying 12 individuals, is tainted. Opponents describe it as a political witch-hunt against Jamaat-e-Islami. In December, the tribunal chairman, Mohammed Nizamul Huq, resigned when a dossier of emails and telephone conversations came to light suggesting collusion between the government, prosecution counsel and judges…
4 February
Rwanda genocide: ICTR overturns ex-ministers’ convictions
(Source: BBC News)
A UN-backed court has overturned the genocide convictions of two Rwandan former ministers and ordered their immediate release. Justin Mugenzi and Prosper Mugiraneza had been sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2011 for complicity, and incitement, to commit genocide. Analysts say Rwanda’s government is likely to be angry at their acquittal…
