[Marxism] Evidence "rebels" used arin

[Louis Proyect]

On 5/6/13 9:01 AM, Louis Proyect wrote:
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> Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
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> On 5/6/13 8:20 AM, Ron Jacobs wrote:
>>
>> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22424188
>
> I find it so amusing how apologists for Bashar al-Assad like Ron quote
> exactly the same sources to indict the Syrian rebels that they attacked
> in the past when they were slandering Milosevic. The article above
> relies totally on the judgment of Carla Del Ponte, a top prosecutor in
> the International Criminal Tribunal on Former Yugoslavia who alleged
> that Milosevic did not die of a heart attack because of a lack of
> adequate medical care but because of suicide in order to "evade justice".
>


Carla Del Ponte investigated over illegal evidence

Former war crimes prosecutor accused of allowing bullying and bribing of 
witnesses in trial of alleged Serbian warlord Vojislav Seselj

     Ian Traynor, Europe editor
     The Guardian, Wednesday 18 August 2010 13.12 EDT	

Carla Del Ponte, the former war crimes prosecutor who put Balkan 
warlords and political leaders behind bars, is to be investigated over 
claims she allowed the use of bullying and bribing of witnesses, or 
tainted evidence.

Judges at the UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The 
Hague today ordered an independent inquiry into the practices of Del 
Ponte and two prominent serving prosecutors, Hildegard Ürtz-Retzlaff and 
Daniel Saxon, after complaints from witnesses that they had been 
harassed, paid, mistreated and their evidence tampered with.

It is the first time in the tribunal's 17 years in operation that top 
prosecutors have faced potential contempt of court rulings.

During her eight years as chief prosecutor, Del Ponte, a determined 
Swiss investigator now serving as her country's ambassador to Argentina, 
was a combative and divisive figure. She left her post in 2007.

The allegations against her concern the working practices of her team of 
investigators in the ongoing prosecution for war crimes of the Serbian 
politician, Vojislav Seselj, a notorious warlord.

"Some of the witnesses had referred to pressure and intimidation to 
which they were subjected by investigators for the prosecution," said a 
statement from the judge in the Seselj case. "The prosecution allegedly 
obtained statements illegally, by threatening, intimidating and/or 
buying [witnesses] off."

One Serbian witness said he was offered a well-paid job in the US in 
return for testimony favourable to the prosecution.

"The statements mention sleep deprivation during interviews, 
psychological pressuring, an instance of blackmail (the investigators 
offered relocation in exchange for the testimony they hoped to obtain), 
threats (one, for example, about preparing an indictment against a 
witness if he refused to testify), or even illegal payments of money."

An independent investigator, expected to be a French magistrate, is to 
report on the allegations within six months. Prosecutors in The Hague 
rejected the allegations while promising to co-operate with the inquiry.

"We believe our staff have conducted their work in a professional way 
within the rules," said Frederick Swinnen, special adviser to Serge 
Brammertz of Belgium, who succeeded Del Ponte as chief prosecutor.

Seselj, who surrendered to the tribunal seven years ago, has been 
alleging prosecution dirty tricks for years. He is routinely disruptive 
in court, trading insults. He has already been sentenced to 15 months 
for contempt of court after revealing the names and addresses of 
protected witnesses.

Judge Jean-Claude Antonetti, who ordered the Del Ponte investigation and 
who is presiding over the Seselj trial, has himself come in for strong 
criticism for "bending over backwards" to accommodate the accused.

Antonetti said the tribunal was taking the allegations seriously and 
refused "to allow any doubt to fester concerning a possible violation of 
the rights of the accused and concerning the investigation techniques 
employed by certain members of the prosecution".

While tribunal experts believed the judge was conducting an exercise in 
political correctness, today's unprecedented decision was the second 
blow this month for prosecutors in major international war crimes trials.

In the trial, also in The Hague, of the former Liberian president, 
Charles Taylor, the prosecutor's decision to summon Naomi Campbell as a 
witness this month backfired badly when the supermodel failed to supply 
explicit evidence linking Taylor to "blood diamonds" and warmongering in 
Sierra Leone.