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| Europe |
| Spain Parliament Moves to Curb Trials of Foreign Atrocities |
| 2014-02-12 |
| [An Nahar] Spain's parliament took the first steps Tuesday to reduce the power of the country's courts to probe human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... cases around the world, a practice that has irked some foreign capitals. Spain's conservative Popular Party tabled a draft law last month that will limit the use of "universal jurisdiction", which allows judges to try certain cases of human rights abuses committed in other countries. Since the doctrine passed into national law in 1985, crusading Spanish judges have used it to pursue U.S. soldiers in Iraq, Israeli defense officials and Argentine military officers. While very few probes opened under the doctrine have seen people brought to trial in Spain, investigations have sparked diplomatic rows with some countries. In a recent case, a Spanish judge on Monday sought international arrest warrants for former Chinese president Jiang Zemin and four other top Chinese officials as part of a probe into alleged genocide in Tibet. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 a Spanish judge on Monday sought international arrest warrants for former Chinese president Jiang Zemin and four other top Chinese officials Forget Jian Zemin. I'd be going after Mao Tse Tung. He was the real sumbitch. A pointless, symbolic gesture you say? Well yeah, buth that pretty much describes the whole 'universal jurisdiction' nonsense. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2014-02-12 13:41 |