Spanish socialists to appeal constitutional validity of curtailing court’s universal justice power

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(TibetanReview.net, Mar09, 2014) – The ruling conservative Popular Party may have got the law it seeks under intense pressure from China to annul the ongoing two Tibet genocide lawsuits being heard by the country’s National Court after it fast-tracked the legislative procedure for the purpose. However, the opposition Socialist Party has said it will appeal to the Constitutional Court in an attempt to reinstate the judiciary’s universal justice jurisdiction in its original form.

Socialist spokesperson Soraya Rodriguez announced the planned appeal during a meeting Mar 4 in the Spanish Congress, said Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet ((CT) Mar 6. Victims, including Tibetan monk Thubten Wangchen, a co-petitioner, testified at the meeting, emphasizing the importance of the principle of universal jurisdiction without the impediment of the recent amendment passed by the congress.

Implementing the amendment will mean impunity for several top retired Chinese leaders currently facing allegations of genocidal human rights violations in occupied Tibet unless intervened by the court on an appeal. The National Court very recently issued international arrest warrants against five retired leaders of China, including former President and Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin and former Premier Li Peng through the international police organization, the Interpol. The court had also issued an indictment against Jiang’s successor Hu Jintao in Oct 2013.

ICT, which has been assisting the cases with provisions of evidences of the retired Chinese leaders’ crimes in Tibet, said it had launched an appeal Feb 21 in the EU capital Brussels, demanding that the Spanish lawmakers protect universal justice.

Meanwhile, concerning the proposed appeal to the constitutional court, Alan Cantos from the Spanish Tibet Support Committee (Comité de Apoyo al Tibet), which launched the cases, together with the author of the lawsuits, Dr José Elías Esteve Moltó, have said: “This principled commitment by the Spanish Socialists in favor of judicial independence and in the spirit of justice for all is an important step in ensuring the moves to obliterate universal jurisdiction come under the scrutiny of the Constitutional Court.”

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