'Unacceptable interference in appointment at ICTY'

[Johan]

October 26, 2013 , 07:08

President Theodor Meron of the ICTY in The Hague has interfered in an unacceptable manner with the appointment of the Chief Prosecutor. This turns out to WikiLeaks leaked confidential U.S. diplomatic cables, where the study radio program Argos today mentions.

Carla del Ponte was from 1999 to 2007 chief prosecutor of the tribunal. In a diplomatic message from the U.S. Embassy in The Hague in 2003 reported on an interview that the U.S. ambassador at the embassy had the day before with Meron. "President Meron of the ICTY met the ambassador on July 16 to express the performance of Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte, and the risks are serious concerns that the extension of her employment would constitute the strategy of completion [of the Tribunal]" , according to a quote from this report:

Procedure president "a very wrong action '

Judge and professor of international criminal law Harmen van der Wilt of the University of Amsterdam calls this action by President Meron "blame" and "a very wrong action, I would almost say a mortal sin." According to Van der Wilt is Merons act contrary to the necessary strict separation between the judiciary and the prosecutor.

In the Dutch legal system is an important factor, but in the Anglo-Saxon legal system, which the ICTY is based, this separation is much sharper and more necessary. "A judge must assess eenaanklager shall", says Van der Wilt in Argos.

The criticism Meron following recent serious allegations about influencing Meron by U.S. or Israeli authorities. The President of the ICTY, previously worked for the U.S. Department of Foreign Affairs, according to several lawyers to prompting by the USA. (Including judges within the UN Court) in some important cases This would major protagonists of the wars in former Yugoslavia - as the Croatian General Ante Gotovina and the chief of the Yugoslav army, Momcilo Perisic - on appeal were acquitted, while they were sentenced to 24 and 27 years in prison initially unexpected. Meron wanted against Argos not respond.

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