By Phuntsok Yangchen
DHARAMSHALA, April 24: The Supreme court of Spain on Wednesday rejected a plea to reopen the “genocide” case against five former Chinese leaders including retired Presidents Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao and upheld its decision to shelve the investigation.
Last month, co-plaintiff and a Spanish citizen, Thubten Wangchen, filed an appeal to reopen the case.
Speaking to Voice of Tibet, Thubten Wangchen said that the Spanish court maintained that the case is not directly linked with Spain and that it did not take place in Spain. “Therefore the Spanish court cannot pursue the case under the new law,” Wangchen regretted.
In 2013, the Spanish court issued an international arrest warrant against the five Chinese leaders on charges of genocide but later dropped the case under a new law that allows Spanish courts to pursue cases only if the accused is a Spanish national or a resident of Spain.
The five Chinese leaders are Jiang Zemin, former President and Party Secretary; Li Peng, Prime Minister during the repression in Tibet in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s (and the crackdown in Tiananmen); Qiao Shi, former head of Chinese security and responsible for the People’s Armed Police during the martial law period in Tibet in the late 1980s; Chen Kuiyuan, Party secretary in the Tibet Autonomous Region from 1992 to 2001 (who was known for his hard-line position against Tibetan religion and culture), and Deng Delyun (also known as Peng Pelyun), minister of family planning in the 1990s.
Alan Cantos and Dr Jose Elias Esteve Molto, both Spanish citizens, jointly filed the cases in Spain National Court in 2005, representing Comite De Apoyo Al Tibet. In 2008, Spain’s top criminal court agreed to hear a lawsuit from Tibetan rights groups that accuses Chinese leaders of genocide in Tibet.
The cases were admitted under the principle of “universal competence” adopted by the Spanish judiciary in 2005 and under which Spanish courts can hear cases of genocide and crimes against humanity wherever they occur and whatever the nationality of the defendant.
According to the new law that limits Spanish courts’ use of universal jurisdiction to pursue crimes against humanity committed outside its territory, Spanish judges would only be allowed to investigate crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity if accuse were Spanish citizens or foreigners who had their habitual residence in Spain at the time when the crimes were committed.
China expressed its anger over the case saying it could damage ties between Spain and China. The amendment to the law is seen as a move to avoid angering China which welcomed the Spanish national court’s decision to scrap the cases against its former leaders. Spain however has denied that the new law was a response to complaints from China.
