Charles Taylor 'duped' by Nigeria | |||
Former Liberian President Charles Taylor has said he was duped by Nigeria into being arrested there in 2006. Speaking at his war crimes trial in The Hague, he said Nigeria's then-leader had reneged on a promise to let him leave the country freely. He also claimed a plot involving the UK and the US led to his indictment. Mr Taylor is accused of backing rebels, who committed widespread atrocities throughout the 1990s in Liberia's neighbour Sierra Leone. He was living in exile in Nigeria in 2006 when US pressure to put him on trial for alleged war crimes increased. Mr Taylor now says the president of Nigeria at the time, Olusegun Obasanjo - who is currently a United Nations peace envoy - told him lies that caused him to be arrested. Mysterious affair The former Liberian leader told the Special Court for Sierra Leone on Tuesday that Mr Obasanjo had earlier assured him he could leave the country freely. "He lied to the world when he said I was escaping, and he knew nothing about it," he said. "Why he lied? I don't know, but as a brother and a friend, I think he ought to speak and tell the truth about it."
Mr Taylor's arrest was a dramatic and mysterious affair. After Mr Obasanjo said Liberia's new government was free to take Mr Taylor into custody, the former Liberian leader suddenly disappeared while Mr Obasanjo was on his way to Washington to meet his US counterpart, George W Bush. Then, equally suddenly, the Nigerians announced that they had arrested Mr Taylor for trying to escape. He was captured, allegedly with huge sacks of cash, on the border with Cameroon - some 1,000km (600 miles) from the southern town of Calabar, where he had been living in exile. Mr Taylor had been given asylum in Nigeria as part of a deal to end Liberia's civil war, though human rights groups accused him of breaking the terms of the deal by continuing to interfere in Liberian politics. On Tuesday, he said he hoped he would live to look Mr Obasanjo in the face one day and ask him to tell the truth about what happened. The BBC's Geraldine Coughlan says Mr Taylor appeared defiant on what was the final day of his testimony in The Hague. He claimed he was a victim of an intelligence plot involving the British and US governments that supplied weapons to the region in an attempt to topple him - as part of a plan by Washington to gain control of West African oil reserves. The US position was that "we cannot have anyone in Liberia that we don't think is going to dance to our tune", he said. He also said he was a peace broker and repeated denials that he had supplied arms to Sierra Leone rebels in exchange for blood diamonds. The prosecution, which will now cross-examine Mr Taylor, says it will challenge the accuracy, truthfulness and completeness of his testimony. Source: BBC news | |||
Wednesday 11 November 2009
Charles Taylor 'duped' by Nigeria
Karadzic wins small victory
Karadzic wins small victory
While the judges opted to impose a lawyer on Karadzic, who has boycotted his trial since it started on October 26, they did not strip him of the right to conduct his own defense and effectively gave him more time to prepare – exactly what he was after.
“This is an indirect way of giving Karadzic a bit more time to prepare his case,” while trying to minimize further interruptions, Willem van Genugten, international law professor at the Netherlands’ Tilburg University, told AFP.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Thursday ordered the imposition of a defense lawyer on Karadzic and adjourned his genocide trial to March 1. Karadzic, 64, has refused to attend his trial since it opened in The Hague nearly two weeks ago, insisting on more time to prepare his defense, which he is conducting himself with the backing of about 20 legal advisers, many of them volunteers.
He had asked the court in September for an extra 10 months to study 1.3 million pages of prosecution evidence and hundreds of witness statements. The judges warned that Karadzic would lose his right to self-representation should he continue his boycott when the trial resumes, in which case the court-assigned lawyer would take over.
“After several warnings (ignored by Karadzic), the tribunal had to send out a serious message if it didn’t want to lose credibility,” said Van Genugten.
In Thursday’s decision, the judges said Karadzic had “substantially and persistently obstructed” the proceedings and “effectively brought the trial to a halt.” There have only been two days of trial hearings to date, both used for the opening statement of the prosecutor, who urged the court not to allow Karadzic’s antics to dictate the trial schedule.
“The judges were looking for a compromise to end the impasse,” said Harmen van der Wilt, international law professor at the University of Amsterdam. “They had to show that they retain control, that they won’t be held hostage, all the while trying to cooperate with the accused,” he said. According to Xavier Tracol, a former ICTY prosecutor, Karadzic “has won a battle but not the war.” “His objective is to hold the tribunal hostage. Winning time is one way of achieving that.”
Source: Kathimerini.gr
Βέλγιο: Αναβολή της δίκης του ζητά ο τραπεζίτης που κατηγορείται ότι χρηματοδότησε τη γενοκτονία στη Ρουάντα
| Βέλγιο: Αναβολή της δίκης του ζητά ο τραπεζίτης που κατηγορείται ότι χρηματοδότησε τη γενοκτονία στη Ρουάντα |
| 11/11/2009 12:07:30 μμ |
Ο Νκεζαμπέρα βαρύνεται με τις κατηγορίες των εγκλημάτων πολέμου, που περιλαμβάνουν φόνο, απόπειρα φόνου και βιασμό. «Θέλουμε μία επίσημη απόφαση, θετική ή αρνητική, για το αν είναι ένοχος για όλες αυτές τις πράξεις», δήλωσε ένας εκ των συγγενών των θυμάτων. Ο κατηγορούμενος έχει παραδεχθεί ότι πρόσφερε όπλα και χρήματα στους αντάρτες Χούτου, οι οποίοι εμπλέκονταν στη γενοκτονία, καθώς και ότι χρηματοδοτούσε τον εξτρεμιστικό ραδιοσταθμό «Radio Mille Collines». Ωστόσο, αρνείται τις κατηγορίες του βιασμού, που για πρώτη φορά στη δικαστική ιστορία του Βελγίου κρίνονται ως εγκλήματα του διεθνούς ανθρωπιστικού δικαίου. Source:LawNewsCenter.gr |
Sunday 8 November 2009
Immigrant arrested over Rwandan genocide
Immigrant arrested over Rwandan genocide
Posted
Police in Canada have arrested an immigrant in connection with the genocide in Rwanda in the early 1990s.
The man is the second Rwandan to be charged under Canada's new Crimes Against Humanity Act.
Jacques Mungwarere was arrested at his home in Windsor, Ontario, and has been officially charged with war crimes.
His arrest caps a six-year police investigation that involved questioning witnesses beyond Canada's borders.
But the case remains shrouded in secrecy with police saying very little.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police war crimes unit would only say the 37-year-old Mungwarere was wanted in connection with genocide in an area of Rwanda that borders the Congo.
It was the scene in 1994 of a horrific massacre where at least 2,000 Tutsis died when bulldozers knocked down the church where they had sought refuge.
Canadian police say they are determined to prosecute these cases to the full extent of the law.
Tuesday 3 November 2009
Βοσνία: Καταδίκη Σερβοβόσνιου στρατιωτικού για εγκλήματα πολέμου
| Βοσνία: Καταδίκη Σερβοβόσνιου στρατιωτικού για εγκλήματα πολέμου |
| 2/11/2009 1:34:27 μμ |
Sierra Leonean judge elected head of UN-backed war crimes tribunal
Sierra Leonean judge elected head of UN-backed war crimes tribunal
The Special Court for Sierra Leone
Justice Emmanuel Ayoola of Nigeria was elected as Vice-President, the press release added.
Justice Kamanda succeeds Justice Renate Winter of Austria, who had served as President since May last year.
The new President has had an extensive legal career, having worked as a barrister, prosecutor and judge during the past 34 years. He has also served as a government minister in Sierra Leone.
The SCSL also announced today that Claire Carlton-Hanciles, a Sierra Leonean lawyer, has been named as the court’s Principal Defender.
«Καταπέλτης» ο εισαγγελέας του ΔΠΔ για τον Κάρατζιτς, που αναμένεται να παρουσιαστεί σήμερα στη δίκη του
| «Καταπέλτης» ο εισαγγελέας του ΔΠΔ για τον Κάρατζιτς, που αναμένεται να παρουσιαστεί σήμερα στη δίκη του |
| 3/11/2009 9:38:26 πμ |
Υπενθυμίζεται ότι οι κατηγορίες που τον βαραίνουν σχετίζονται με τους βομβαρδισμούς και τα πυρά ελεύθερων σκοπευτών στο Σεράγεβο καθ’ όλη τη διάρκεια του πολέμου, που κόστισαν τη ζωή περισσοτέρων από 10.000 πολιτών. Ο ίδιος αρνείται όλα αυτά και ζητά εννέα μήνες επιπλέον, για να προετοιμάσει την υπεράσπισή του. |
Sunday 1 November 2009
Sierra Leone: eight men found guilty of war crimes transferred to Rwanda
Sierra Leone: eight men found guilty of war crimes transferred to Rwanda
Former leader of the RUF in Sierra Leone Issa Hassan Sesay (centre)
Currently, no prison in Sierra Leone meets the required international standards, so amid tight security, they were flown yesterday from the detention facilities at the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) compound in the country's capital, Freetown, to Rwanda's capital, Kigali.
Among those transferred were three men who led a rebel movement called the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) who were convicted in February on charges relating to, among others, terrorism, murder, rape, sexual slavery and use of child soldiers, and, for the first time in history, forced marriage and attacks against peacekeepers.
Last week, the SCSL upheld the sentences of former RUF Interim Leader Issa Hassan Sesay to 52 years in prison, RUF commander Morris Kallon to 40 years and former RUF Chief of Security Augustine Gbao to 25 years.
Others flown to Rwanda to serve their sentences were three former leaders of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), Alex Tamba Brima, Ibrahim Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu, as well as two former leaders of the Civil Defence Forces (CDF), Moinina Fofana and Allieu Kondewa.
The eight prisoners will be incarcerated at Rwanda's Mpanga Prison under an agreement between the Court and the Rwandan Government. The part of the facility where they will be held was originally built to house those convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
Credit will be given for time served while in detention at the Special Court, which was set up jointly by the UN and the Government of Sierra Leone and is mandated to bring those bearing the greatest responsibility for atrocities committed in the West African nation after 30 November 1996.
The Freetown-based Court last week handed down its final ruling in Sierra Leone last week, wrapping up its trial proceedings.
The remaining trial, involving former Liberian president Charles Taylor, is continuing at The Hague, where it was moved for security reasons.
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