THE COUNTRY: The folder to universal justice will file a dozen causes

The Popular Party has ended this Thursday with universal justice with an express parliamentary procedure by which at the end of March, after the passage of the proposal through the Senate, fall a dozen cases filed that are processed in the National Court, among them that of the genocide in Tibet and the death in Iraq of the television cameraman José Couso.

The reform of the Organic Law of the Judiciary approved by Congress, which will have retroactive effect, eliminates or limits the prosecution of crimes against humanity recognized by international law. Judges may intervene only if the procedure is directed against a Spaniard or a foreign citizen residing in Spain.. It is an “abuse” of human rights, according to the opposition groups; the renewal of a “system with much ado about nothing”, according to the PP. These are some matters that the Spanish justice system will close.

» Genocide in Tibet. Open in the investigating court number 2 of the National Court, by Judge Ismael Moreno, The proceedings for the genocide in Tibet and the persecution of the spiritual practice Falun Gong in China will be archived. The arrest warrant for former Chinese president Jiang Zemin and other leaders of the regime threatened relations between Spain and the Asian giant. And it is precisely the international pressure what the opposition recriminates the Executive. This is, give in to the “blackmail of a tyranny”, in the words of UPyD deputy Irene Lozano. All parliamentary groups have rejected this project that, denounce, will end up favoring “big corrupt people”, chinese gyrfalcons, genocidal and tyrants.

» ‘Cuso case’. The US soldiers responsible for the death of José Couso opened fire on the Palestine hotel in Baghdad, occupied by journalists, he 8 April 2003, in the middle of the Iraq war. Neither the United States nor the Pentagon have responded to the requirements of Judge Santiago Pedraz, head of the investigating court number 1, that issued a search and arrest warrant for the three soldiers accused in the case and demanded their appearance before the Spanish justice system on four occasions.. The cameraman's family has already shown its willingness to go to the European Court of Human Rights of Strasbourg to continue the investigation.

» Torture in Guantanamo. The proposal approved yesterday leaves, in principle, The case instructed by Judge Pablo Ruz is also without effect. about torture in the Guantánamo prison camp, because the text of the reform requires that the victim have Spanish nationality when he suffered the events —a requirement that only one of the complainants would meet, Hamed Abderramán from Ceuta— and that the alleged person responsible resides in Spain, which excludes the military commanders from the US prison. In relation to this case, Judge Moreno declared himself competent in 2006 to investigate the case of the CIA flights and the possible stopover in Palma de Mallorca, bound for Guantanamo, of illegally detained prisoners. The leak of the cables from the US Embassy in Madrid through Wikileaks showed that the US authorities tried to pressure the Spanish authorities to accelerate the filing of these cases.

» Genocide in the Sahara, Guatemala and Rwanda. Judge Ruz investigates the genocide in the Sahara after the complaint presented by several NGOs against Moroccan soldiers for the disappearance of more than 500 Sahrawis since Spain withdrew from the territory, in 1976. And just two weeks ago, while the PP was looking for a formula to speed up the file, A team of forensic experts certified that there were at least three Spaniards in graves found in the desert.. The National Court must close the case opened after the complaint filed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú against former Guatemalan leaders for genocide, terrorism and torture. And the same will happen in the case of Rwanda with the investigation opened by Judge Fernando Andreu against 69 senior officials for the murder of at least six Spanish citizens and four million Rwandans during the civil war. The instruction of Judge Eloy Velasco against 20 Salvadoran military and former military personnel accused in 1989 of the murder of five Spanish Jesuits in San Salvador, among them Ignacio Ellacuría.

» Ablation. If the Senate does not submit the urgent proposal approved yesterday to a review of this section, The protection for the prosecution of crimes will also disappear relating to female genital mutilation. According to data from the World Health Organization, Excision is performed every year on three million girls in large areas of Africa and the Middle East, and is internationally recognized as a violation of human rights.

» Drug trafficking. Before the express debate staged yesterday in Congress, the Government and the PP They amended an article of the reform of the law of the judiciary because the initial text limited police action when boarding ships in international waters. This circumstance could represent an insurmountable obstacle in the fight against drug trafficking.. The Intelligence Center against Organized Crime (GIRL), that managed in time to rectify the initial purpose of the Government, believes that the assault of narcobarcos It is one of the “international commitments” assumed by Spain and is supported by the article 17 of the UN Convention against Illicit Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs.