FROM ACCUSER TO ACCUSED: NICO STEIJNEN PREPARES THE WAY FOR CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS AGAINST KWON, BONOMY, AND ROBINSON IN THE DUTCH COURTS
www.slobodan-milosevic.org – March 19, 2006 [Updated March 25, 2006]

Written by: Andy Wilcoxson

Slobodan Milosevic Freedom Center board member Nico Steijnen, Slobodan Milosevic’s attorney before the Dutch and International Courts, is preparing the way for Dutch authorities to file criminal charges against the Hague Tribunal’s judges in the aftermath of President Milosevic’s death.

Steijnen holds that the judges willfully destroyed President Milosevic’s health by ignoring medical advice, and that they caused his death by actively preventing him from obtaining vital medical care.

On February 4, 1985 the Kingdom of the Netherlands ratified the “Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.” The convention entered into effect on Dutch soil on December 21, 1988.

Article 1 of the convention bans “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.”

Steijnen claims that forcing Milosevic to suffer and die in prison, while life-saving medical care was being offered by Russian physicians, is tantamount to torture causing death. As such he argues that the tribunal, and specifically the trial judges, violated the convention.

Officers of the Hague Tribunal have diplomatic immunity which shields them from most criminal prosecution before the Dutch courts, but torture – especially torture causing death - is a unique case.

Under the convention, there is no diplomatic immunity for torturers. Steijnen cites the case of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who was arrested in Great Britain on charges of torture.

In 1998 the British authorities arrested Pinochet at the request of Spanish prosecutors who had charged him with torture under the convention.

In 1999 the United Kingdom’s highest court ruled that Pinochet could be extradited to Spain under the terms of the convention, but Pinochet’s failing health, coupled with the fact that he had only committed acts of torture prior to the convention’s adoption, led British authorities to return him to Chile.

Article 4 of the convention states: “Each State Party shall ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law. The same shall apply to an attempt to commit torture and to an act by any person which constitutes complicity or participation in torture. 2. Each State Party shall make these offences punishable by appropriate penalties which take into account their grave nature.”

Article 5.3 of the convention states that “[The] Convention does not exclude any criminal jurisdiction exercised in accordance with internal law.”

Article 5.1 (A) of the convention holds that criminal prosecution must be undertaken in a country “when the offences are committed in any territory under its jurisdiction or on board a ship or aircraft registered in that State.”

Article 6 obliges “any State Party in whose territory a person alleged to have committed any offence referred to in article 4 is present shall take him into custody or take other legal measures to ensure his presence. The custody and other legal measures shall be as provided in the law of that State but may be continued only for such time as is necessary to enable any criminal or extradition proceedings to be instituted.”

According to Mr. Steijnen, the convention supersedes diplomatic immunity which makes it binding on the Dutch authorities to arrest and prosecute Mr. O-Gon Kwon, Mr. Patrick Robinson, and Mr. Iain Bonomy for torture resulting in the death of Slobodan Milosevic.

Should the Dutch authorities fail in their obligation to prosecute these criminals, it is possible (in light of the Pinochet precedent) that charges as well as international arrest warrants could be filed against the three accused men by a third country, such as Russia or Belarus.

However, in the event that the Dutch public prosecutor’s office refuses to undertake proceedings, Steijnen says his next step will be to file a complaint with the Committee Against Torture in Geneva.

In addition to preparing criminal proceedings against the judges, Mr. Steijnen is preparing malpractice litigation against the doctors that the tribunal had treating Milosevic when he died.

Steijnen intends to haul the doctors up in front of the disciplinary board of the Dutch medical association. In particular he intends to hold Dr. Donald Uges accountable for pseudo-medical remarks that he made in the media on the occasion of President Milosevic’s death.

Steijnen says he plans to be in court this Wednesday filing perjury charges against the former Dutch foreign minister Jozias van Aartsen, for lying in connection with testimony he gave before Dutch courts regarding the 1999 NATO bombing of Radio-Television Serbia.

Nico Steijnen is an unsung hero. He has been working for President Milosevic for free for several years and he really deserves and needs all of our support.

To help finance Mr. Steijnen’s work please make a donation to the Slobodan Milosevic Freedom Center at:
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/hague/donate.htm

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