2023-05-12 14:28:44
Can foreigners still be prosecuted in France for crimes against humanity, acts of torture or war crimes perpetrated elsewhere in the world on other foreigners? This is the crucial question to be answered on Friday May 12 by the highest court of the judiciary.
Seized in two cases concerning Syrian nationals, the Court of Cassation confirmed the “universal jurisdiction” of French justice to judge such acts.
⚖ [Communiqué] The Court recognizes that French justice has “universal jurisdiction” in two cases which concern… https://t.co/BuVhQz4Nbn
The fear of an earthquake for the judicial world
In November 2021, the Court, already seized of the Abdulhamid Chaban case, considered that French justice was incompetent in this case, invoking the principle of “double incrimination” provided for in the law of August 9, 2010: crimes against Humanity and war crimes must be recognized in the country of origin of a suspect that France intends to prosecute. However, Syria does not recognize these crimes and has not ratified the Rome Statute which created the International Criminal Court.
This judgment had caused an earthquake in the legal world and organizations for the defense of human rights. The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), a civil party, had lodged an opposition for a procedural reason, allowing the case to be returned to the Court of Cassation.
In the case of Majdi Nema, former spokesperson for the rebel group Jaysh al-Islam (Army of Islam), arrested in January 2020 in Marseilles where he was on a study trip, the Paris Court of Appeal maintained his indictment in April 2022, considering that Syrian law provided “by equivalence” several war crimes and offenses defined in the French penal code.
The Attorney General at the Court of Cassation, François Molins, had advocated the rejection of the appeals, calling for a “flexible interpretation” dual criminality and that universal jurisdiction does not become “dead letter”. He had underlined that the crimes against humanity unit was currently working on 30 geographical areas and that the files linked to 16 of these areas, including Syria, Russia or Ukraine, could be called into question if justice French was declared incompetent.
More information to come
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