Former president of Liberia first head of state indicted, tried and convicted in an int’l court
This two-‐year-‐old girl lost her right arm when her grandmother was shot and killed by Revolutionary United Front rebels. She was being carried on her grandmother’s back and was wounded by the same bullet that killed her grandmother. The four other men all had their hands amputated by rebels ©1999 Corinne Dufka/Human Rights Watch
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Charles Taylor, former president of Liberia, was convicted in The Hague Thursday 26 April on 11 counts of war crimes by the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
The court’s statement noted that the 11-count indictment alleged that he was responsible for crimes committed by rebel forces during Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war. “The Special Court’s Trial Chamber II found unanimously that Mr. Taylor aided and abetted RUF and AFRC rebels in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sierra Leone.”
The court did not accuse him of personally committing crimes but rather “found that he had aided and abetted the rebels by providing them with arms and ammunition, military personnel, operational support and moral support, making him individually responsible for their crimes”, from his base in neighbouring Liberia.
The charges included the recruitment, enlistment and use of child soldiers and
- several war crimes: terrorism, outrages upon personal dignity and cruel treatment, pillage plus
- several counts of crimes against humanity: rape, enslavement, sexual slavery, mutilations and amputations and murder.
A sentencing hearing will be held 16 May and he will be sentenced 30 May. The court must sentence him to a specific number of years in prison; it cannot give him a life sentence or the death sentence.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The ICC (International Criminal Court) in The Hague has found Thomas Lubanga guilty of turning children into soldiers in the eastern Congo from 2002 to 2003. It is the first verdict the court has issued in its 10 years. Lubanga, who turned himself in, in 2006, will be sentenced later. The maximum sentence is life in prison. He was also the first arrest the ICC made. The court was created to bring to trial people responsible for crimes such as genocide and war crimes, that are considered of international concern.
The court currently has 14 other cases in various stages.
Links to other sites: CNN, Guardian, ICC, LubangaTrial.org
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Saadi Qadaffi, who fled to Niger, is contesting Interpol’s arrest warrant for him, after earlier dismissing charges of misappropriating funds. His lawyer said Tuesday 2 November that he is challenging the basis of the Interpol warrant, saying it is politically motivated by a new leadership that lacks legitimacy.
The news comes three days after the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, that the presumed heir to the Qddafi regime in Libya, Saif Al-Islam, said it fears Saif Al-Islam, once the presumed heir to the Qaddafi reign, is trying to escape from Libya to Niger with the help of mercenaries, although he is also reported to be asking questions about what will happen to him if he turns himself in. to face prosecutoin by the ICC.
Muammar Qaddafi’s other children have taken refuge in Algeria. They include Hannibal, who provoked a diplomatic row between Libya and Switzerland.
THE HAGUE – The International Criminal Court in The Hague has asked Interpol to issue Red Notices for three Libyan leaders for whom arrest warrants were issued in June: Muammar Qaddafi, Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi and Abdullah Al-Senussi. The three are wanted on charges of suspected crimes against humanity, murder and torture.
The ICC’s prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced the measure 8 September, saying that arresting Qaddafi “is a matter of time”.
An Interpol Red Notice seeks the provisional arrest of a wanted person with a view to extradition or surrender to an international court based on an arrest warrant or court decision, the ICC notes in a statement. Interpol, which has in the past year taken a number of steps to increase the effectiveness of the Red Notice system, says “Red Notices, issued at the request of any of the organization’s 188 member countries or an international tribunal for wanted international fugitives, are the most famous of Interpol’s series of colour-coded notices since their creation by Interpol in 1946. Red Notices are not international arrest warrants; they are aimed at circulating internationally a national arrest warrant or judicial decision concerning a wanted fugitive.”
Some 5,000 Red Notices are issued annually.
They have been used to help track down terrorists since 2005 when the Interpol-United Nations Security Council Special Notice was created following the passage of a UN Security Council resolution, to help the UN Security Council’s 1267 Committee carry out its mandate covering the freezing of assets, travel bans and arms embargos aimed at individuals and entities associated or belonging to al Qaeda and the Taliban.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Radko Mladic’s arrest in Serbia Thursday 26 May after 16 years on the run from accusations of war crimes has prompted congratulations from world leaders from around the world. Among them: Carla del Ponte, the Swiss prosecutor who presided over the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) from 2003 to 2008. She said on Swiss public radio RSR this evening, “It’s a great day, a great moment, not just for international justice but also for the victims.” Del Ponte is currently Switzerland’s ambassador to Argentina.
Mladic was the military commander of Bosnian Serbs from 1992 to 1996, working closely with political leader Radovan Karadzic, who was caught in 2008 after 13 years at large. The two, along with Slobodan Milosevic, were accused on several accounts of genocide. The ICTY had sought them on charges of leading the slaughter of 8,000 people at Srebrenica in 1995, and the 1992-95 siege of Sarajevo. During the siege some 11,000 people died.
Serbia’s president Boris Tadic says his country will now concentrate on catching Goran Hadzic, another leader sought for war crimes. Tadic says today’s arrest shows that his country has been cooperating with the tribunal and its application to join the European Union, on hold over the failure to find the former leaders, can now move ahead. Both Mladic and Karadzic were found living under aliases, disguised.
Kosovo was in the eye of the world Thursday 22 July in a way it has not been for some time, after the International Court of Justice said its unilateral declaration of independence in 2008 was not illegal, news followed soon after by an announcement that the governor of its central bank had been arrested in an anti-fraud investigation. The court, in The Hague, noted that while the declaration of independence had not violated international law, this did not necessarily imply Kosovo had the right to declare its independence, leaving the question unresolved and states free to decide if they will recognize Kosovo as a fellow nation. Serbia promptly said it would never recognize Kosovo as an independent state.
Hashim Rexhepi, the governor of Kosovo’s central bank, was arrested as part of a Eulex investigation. Eulex is the European Union’s rule of law mission. He and four others are being investigated for “suspected bribes, tax evasion, influence-peddling and money laundering,” reports the BBC. According to Reuters, Kosovo has received euros 4 billion in aid since declaring independence; “Kosovo’s main currency is the euro and Rexhepi’s role was to monitor the work of banks in the country.”
Links to other sites: Guardian editorial, TSR (Fre), VOA
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The UN Human Rights Council, meeting in a special session 15 and 16 October, has approved the report into possible war crimes during the December 2008-January 2009 incursion by Israel into the Gaza Strip. The council will forward the report to the UN General Assembly for consideration. At the end of the session countries voted, 25-6, to approve the report, and 11 countries abstained.
Israel argued that the report was one-sided and ignored the attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians which precipitated the war. The US voted against approval, saying that it would hamper Mideast peace efforts.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, who now heads the Geneva-based Global Humanitarian Forum, has sent a sealed envelope with a list of names of people suspected of having fanned ethnic violence following the 2007 presidential election in Kenya, to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
Annan played a key role in mediating a settlement between opposing political forces.
