Brit applies for arrest warrant
2004-01-07 20:08
London - A human rights campaigner began an application through the British courts Wednesday for a warrant for the arrest and extradition of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on torture charges.
Peter Tatchell is seeking the warrant under a provision of Britain's 1988 Criminal Justice Act that anyone who commits, authorises, colludes, acquiesces or condones acts of torture anywhere in the world can be prosecuted in Britain.
No one appeared in court to oppose the application.
"I make this application to this court because there is no possibility that such an application could be made, with any serious prospect of success, in a court in Zimbabwe," Tatchell told Bow Street magistrate's court in central London.
"The Zimbabwean judiciary has suffered gross threats and intimidation by state agents, such as the police and intelligence services, forcing the cowing and resignation of judges. In the current climate of state-sponsored terror in Zimbabwe, there is no realistic possibility that any court would prosecute Mr Mugabe."
Tatchell presented documents from several human rights groups, including Amnesty International, and an affidavit from Zimbabwean journalist Ray Choto, who alleges he suffered "asphyxiation by immersion in water bags, electric shock treatment and (was) kept throughout in leg-irons and handcuffs".
Choto, who now lives in Washington DC, said he was told by his military torturers that Mugabe had signed his death warrant.
"It is inconceivable that Mr Mugabe as commander in chief of the Zimbabwe defence forces with personal responsibility for their conduct is unaware of what's going on ... he is culpable and responsible and should held to account in a court of law for his actions," Tatchell said.
The campaigner is facing two major obstacles to his legal bid - Britain's attorney general must agree to any prosecution, and heads of state are usually immune from prosecution.
Tatchell urged Judge Timothy Workman not to rely on a February 2002 ruling by the International Court of Justice regarding the Democratic Republic of the Congo vs Belgium that provided heads of state with immunity.
"One implication of (the ICJ) ruling is that a new Adolf Hitler who tortures and exterminates six million people could, so long as he remained head of state, be granted state immunity for the crimes of genocide and torture.... If the ICJ's decision is allowed to stand, we may as well tear up the Geneva, Genocide and Torture Conventions."
Judge Timothy Workman adjourned the hearing until January 14.
The Australian-born Tatchell, 51, has twice tried to make a citizen's arrest of Mugabe, first in London in 1999. When he tried two years later in Brussels, Belgium, he was beaten by Mugabe's bodyguards.
- SAPA