MADRID: Spanish High Court Judge Ismael Moreno yesterday sought international arrest orders for former Chinese president Jiang Zemin, ex-Prime Minister Li Peng and others on allegations of genocide in Tibet.
The case against the former Chinese leaders was brought by human rights groups under Spain’s recognition of universal jurisdiction — the principle that crimes against humanity can be prosecuted across borders.
It is the same concept used by Spain’s former judge Baltasar Garzon to bring about the 1998 arrest of Chile’s ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet in London. Pinochet was eventually allowed to return to Chile for health reasons.
“Jiang exercised supervisory authority over the people who directly committed abuses, which makes him responsible for acts of torture and other major abuses of human rights perpetrated by his subordinates against the people of Tibet,” Moreno wrote in his ruling.
The judge ordered Interpol to issue the arrest order seeking capture and imprisonment of Jiang for genocide, torture and crimes against humanity. He issued similar orders for Li and other Chinese officials in the 1980s and 1990s.
China’s Foreign Ministry called on Spain on Friday to prevent further lawsuits that seek to probe alleged Chinese rights abuses in the restive region of Tibet.
17 inmates stab themselves in Georgia prison
TBILISI: At least 17 prison inmates in Georgia were hospitalised yesterday with self-inflicted stab wounds as a larger protest over alleged mistreatment rocked the ex-Soviet state’s penal system, authorities said.
The inmates from Geguti penitentiary in western Georgia were treated for “self-inflicted multiple stab wounds in their upper and lower extremities,” the Ministry of Correction said, as hundreds more convicts pressed on with a hunger strike.
“The injured inmates received medical treatment and were brought back to the prison in a normal condition. No force was used against them by the prison administration which is fully in control of the situation,” a statement from the ministry said.
Agencies
