February 2020 - Domestic Prosecution of International Crimes
By: RAGHAVI VISWANATH & EREZ ROMAN, JUNIOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATES, PILPG-NL
This month saw the initiation of criminal proceedings for core crimes in jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom, Uruguay, and the United States of America. This post compiles some of these developments relating to universal jurisdiction. The post canvasses both national and international news sources.
EUROPE
United Kingdom | UK, US, and Turkey urged to arrest UAE officials for alleged war crimes in Yemen
The United Kingdom, Turkey and the United States have been asked to open police investigations into alleged war crimes committed by the United Arab Emirates and its mercenaries in Yemen in 2015 and 2019, and arrest Emirati officials under the principle of universal jurisdiction. Yemeni complainants filed charges through a UK law firm asserting that UAE officials hired mercenaries to attack and kill civilians. (Feb. 13, 2020)
Germany | Germany Indicts Iraqi Man Over Death of Yazidi Slave Girl
A girl who was a slave of an Iraqi man and his wife was allegedly left to die of thirst in the heat in Iraq. The Iraqi man has been indicted on charges of murder, membership of a foreign terrorist organization, genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and human trafficking (Feb. 21, 2020)
Croatia | Croatian court upholds Serb paramilitary fighter’s war crimes sentence
Croatia’s Supreme Court upheld a verdict sentencing former Serb paramilitary fighter Pero Jekic to eight years in prison in absentia for raping one woman and trying to rape another near Petrinja in Croatia in 1991. (Feb. 13, 2020)
Croatia | Croatian court convicts former Serb paramilitary fighter for war crimes
The Zagreb County Court convicted Dragan Birac of committing war crimes in Hrvatska Kostajnica in central Croatia in September 1991 after he was tried in absentia. (Feb. 10, 2020)
SOUTH AMERICA
Uruguay | Uruguay's prosecutor opens new files against humanity
Uruguay's Special Prosecutor for Crimes against Humanity Ricardo Perciballe opened four new cases against former military officers from the dictatorship that had remained outside the reach of justice. The subjects are accused of 'a continued crime of abuse of authority against political detainees in 1972, in formal competition with a continued crime of serious injuries and these in concurrence aside from reiterating a continued crime of deprivation of liberty,' states the judgment. (Feb. 29, 2020)
NORTH AMERICA
United States of America | Libyan commander sued for alleged war crimes in Libya
Six Libyan families sued Libyan eastern-based renegade commander Khalifa Haftar and the United Arab Emirates government in a federal U.S. court for their alleged roles in committing war crimes in Libya. In the lawsuit filed in the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia, the families, whose relatives were murdered, injured or faced attempted killings, are seeking $1 billion in damages. (Feb.11, 2020)