Two lawyers criticized the anti-terrorist prosecution (Pnat) on Thursday, February 17 for delaying in deciding on a complaint for torture against the Emirati boss of Interpol, denouncing the “abandonmentby France of its universal jurisdiction over the most serious crimes.
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Universal jurisdiction allows a State to prosecute the perpetrators of the most serious crimes, regardless of their nationality and the place where they were committed. “The Pnat (competent in this area) must explain itself: has it classified? Does he let the complaint sleep if (Ahmed Nasser) Al-Raisi returns?asked Me William Bourdon during a press conference in Paris. Me Bourdon represents the NGO Gulf Center for Human rights (GCHR), which filed a complaint in mid-January against the Emirati general Ahmed Nasser Al-Raisi for the “torture” and the “acts of barbarismthat the opponent Ahmed Mansoor would suffer in Abu Dhabi.
“A speech and acts of France which are completely in contradiction. »
Ecologist MP Hubert Julien-Laferrière
“We wanted to spare Al-Raisi and we succeeded, by allowing him on a wait-and-see basis“To leave France when he passed there in January without being arrested, regretted the lawyer, “France tears up its international obligationsresulting from the 1984 Convention against Torture. Me Bourdon sees political reasons for this: “the intensity of bilateral relations between France and the United Arab Emirates“. Asked on Wednesday, the Pnat, which had already closed two previous complaints, explaining that the person concerned did not reside in France, indicated that the complaints were “Analyzing“. For William Bourdon, France “is today a judicial paradisefor the perpetrators of these crimes. Me Patrick Baudouin, also honorary president of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), for his part considered that universal jurisdiction in France was “almost dormant“. He underlined the weight of the prosecutor’s lock, the only one able to prosecute in this matter, and the obligation of “habitual residenceof the suspect.
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Khalid Ibrahim, director of GCHR, called the Pnat “to do what is necessary” for the victims and the ecologist deputy Hubert Julien-Laferrière spoke of a “speeches and acts of France which are completely in contradiction“. The election as Interpol president of Ahmed Nasser Al-Raisi, in Istanbul on November 25, aroused the anger of human rights defenders and politicians who considered that it undermined the mission. organisation. “Al-Raisi holds full-time official duties in his own country and is not permanently based in Lyon“, reacted Interpol in January, considering that the dispute covered by the complaint fell within”of a subject between the parties concerned“.