Created Sun 7th Dec 2008 9:15am PST by 
growthy
growthy 
Will Mugabe face trial at The Hague before 2012?
Background: There are two legal means potentially available for putting Mugabe on trial. One would deploy the principle of “universal jurisdiction” and the other would be to seek an indictment before the recently-established International Criminal Court (ICC), based in The Hague.
The ICC has been set up as a permanent institution to hear cases involving crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes. It is currently considering cases arising from conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, the Central African Republic and Sudan. (The high-profile trials of the former presidents of Yugoslavia and Liberia - Slobodan Milosevic and Charles Taylor - and those of the perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide have been conducted by specially-constituted tribunals.)
The statute which established the ICC defines crimes against humanity as “any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack: murder… forcible transfer of population… torture … rape… [or] other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.”
It is important to bear in mind that the ICC is legally able to deal only with crimes committed after its establishment in July 2002. Some of the worst allegations against Mugabe - of involvement in the killing of thousands in Matabeleland in the 1980s and of allowing the violent seizure of farms by war veterans beginning in 2000 - took place before that date.
However, the expulsion from their homes of tens of thousands of people living in informal settlements (“Operation Murambatsvina”) in 2005 and the acts of violence committed by his militia preceding and during the 2005 and 2008 elections took place after the treaty establishing the ICC came into effect.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200808060042.html
The ICC has been set up as a permanent institution to hear cases involving crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes. It is currently considering cases arising from conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, the Central African Republic and Sudan. (The high-profile trials of the former presidents of Yugoslavia and Liberia - Slobodan Milosevic and Charles Taylor - and those of the perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide have been conducted by specially-constituted tribunals.)
The statute which established the ICC defines crimes against humanity as “any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack: murder… forcible transfer of population… torture … rape… [or] other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.”
It is important to bear in mind that the ICC is legally able to deal only with crimes committed after its establishment in July 2002. Some of the worst allegations against Mugabe - of involvement in the killing of thousands in Matabeleland in the 1980s and of allowing the violent seizure of farms by war veterans beginning in 2000 - took place before that date.
However, the expulsion from their homes of tens of thousands of people living in informal settlements (“Operation Murambatsvina”) in 2005 and the acts of violence committed by his militia preceding and during the 2005 and 2008 elections took place after the treaty establishing the ICC came into effect.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200808060042.html
Settlement details:As reported by a major mainstream news source.
Forecast history %
| Yes |
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| No |
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Question suspends in 2 years
- Activity: H$11,265 |
- Predictions: 62 |
Comments: 3
Get widget!Predictions (62)
tim14
predicted No (H$20 at 74%)
lrossouw
deelilley
predicted Yes (H$50 at 27%)
bookie
onedave![[Power User]](http://www.hubdub.com/images/icon_superuser.gif "This user is a super user"){kind=icon}
Comments (3)
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