Monthly News Updates: Domestic Prosecution of International Crimes - November 2021
By: Pauline Pfaff, Junior Research Associate, PILPG-NL
Several trials for international crimes before domestic courts have commenced or concluded this month. The following post outlines new developments in relation to the prosecution of international crimes in national jurisdictions worldwide.
EUROPE
France | Trial against former hotel driver for complicity in Rwandan genocide commences
The trial of Claude Muhayiama for complicity in the 1994 Rwandan genocide has started before a court in Paris. Muhayiama, a former hotel driver, allegedly drove perpetrators of the genocide to massacre sites. This is the third trial in France in connection to the genocide in Rwanda, but the first of a person without close ties to the government or military. [November 22, 2021]
Spain | Spanish coalition government files amendment to draft Democratic Memory Law to allow for prosecution of crimes committed during Franco rule
The Socialist Party (POSE) and Unidas Podemos, the two parties forming the Spanish coalition government, filed an amendment to the draft Democratic Memory Law, which, if adopted, would allow for the prosecution of international crimes committed during the Franco era. The amendment would entail a reinterpretation of the 1977 Amnesty Law, which allowed for the release of political prisoners and that no offences committed by members of the dictatorial government prior to 1977 could be prosecuted. [November 17, 2021]
Bosnia-Herzegovina | Bosnian state court convicts two former Bosnian-Serb soldiers of war crime committed in 1992
The Bosnian state court found Bratislav Bilbija and Djuro Adamovic, two former Bosnian-Serb soldiers, guilty of the war crime of inhumane treatment of civilians. It sentenced the defendants to two and three years’ imprisonment respectively. In the same ruling, the court acquitted both Bilbija and Adamovic for the counts of murder, torture, and forced disappearances, and fully acquitted a third defendant, Ranko Babic. The acts took place in August 1992 in the village of Bukvik, close to Prijedor. The verdict is open to appeal. [November 16, 2021]
Kosovo | Court of Appeals upholds judgement and sentencing against former Serb fighter for war crimes committed in 1999
The Court of Appeals in Pristina upheld the 12-year imprisonment sentence against former Serb fighter Zoran Djokic for war crimes against civilians. It also rejected the appeals filed by both the defense and the prosecution. The underlying acts were committed against ethnic Albanian civilians in the town of Peja/Pec in 1999 during the Kosovo War. [November 15, 2021]
Netherlands | Dutch court allows extradition of unnamed individual to Rwanda to stand trial for genocide and crimes against humanity
The District Court of The Hague ruled in favor of the extradition to Rwanda of an unnamed person for the purpose of criminal prosecution. The Rwandan authorities brought forward allegations of complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity to substantiate their extradition request. The implicated individual opposed the extradition based on fair trial concerns, which were discarded by the Court. [November 15, 2021]
Sweden | Stockholm District court charges Lundin Energy executives with complicity in war crimes in Sudan 1999-2003
The Swedish public prosecutors formally indicted two representatives of Lundin Energy, a Swedish oil company, for aiding and abetting grave war crimes committed in Sudan between 1999 and 2003. [November 11, 2021]
Sweden/Albania | War crimes trial against former Iranian official commences and relocates to Albania to hear witness testimony
The trial against former Iranian official Hamid Nouri for war crimes has officially started. It is alleged that Nouri handed out death sentences during a purge of political dissidents in 1988. The proceedings will temporarily relocate from Sweden to Albania for a period of two weeks to hear the testimony of seven witnesses who live there in exile. The testimony pertains to the accused’s role in the 1988 massacre of opposition members in Iran. [November 10, 2021]
Germany | Higher Regional Court Frankfurt confirms charges for war crimes and crimes against humanity against Syrian citizen
The Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt confirmed charges against Alaa M., who allegedly committed torture and murder in a military hospital and at a detention facility of the Military Intelligence Service in Homs, Syria, between 2011 and 2012. The first court hearing is scheduled for January 2022. [November 10, 2021]
Germany | Two human rights organizations file lawsuit against Belarusian officials for crimes against humanity before German court
The World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) filed a complaint for crimes against humanity against six members of the Belarusian security forces. The accused allegedly committed mass detentions, disappearances, sexual violence, torture, and political persecution. [November 1, 2021]
AFRICA
Central African Republic | Special Criminal Court 1 charges minister with war crimes and crimes against humanity
The Special Criminal Court 1 arrested Hassan Bouba, the minister of livestock and animal health, and brought charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against him. Bouba is a former leader of the rebel group Union for Peace in the Central African Republic, which was responsible for various atrocity crimes between the years of 2014 and 2017. [November 24, 2021]
South Africa | Charges of apartheid as crimes against humanity for the first time before South African court
The Director of Public Prosecutions in Johannesburg for the first time included charges for apartheid as crimes against humanity in the revised indictment against the accused in the so-called COSAS Four case. The case pertains to the killing and serious injury of four members of the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) by policemen in 1987. [November 23, 2021]
Democratic Republic of the Congo | First conviction for war crimes against a former militia leader in the Kasai province
A Congolese military tribunal convicted a former militia leader for war crimes, including summary executions and looting, committed during the 2017 conflict between the Congolese army and the Kamuina Nsapu militias. This is the first conviction of this type in the Kasai province. The trial only lasted five days. The military tribunal sentenced T. Mandefu, a village chief and militia leader,to death. [November 8, 2021]
ASIA
Bangladesh | International Crimes Tribunal 1 sentences former Bangladesh Nationalist Party lawmaker to death for crimes against humanity
The International Crimes Tribunal 1 sentenced former Bangladesh Nationalist Party lawmaker Abdul Momin Talukder Khoka to death for crimes against humanity that he committed during the 1971 Liberation War.[November 24, 2021]