UK court considers Mugabe extradition bid
A British court today began considering whether Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe should be arrested and extradited on torture charges.
Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who has twice tried to carry out a citizen’s arrest on Mugabe in Europe, lodged the application at London’s Bow Street Magistrates’ Court.
He alleged that Mugabe had, while in office, “intentionally authorised, condoned and acquiesced in the infliction of severe pain on another person between September 29, 1998 and January 7, 2004.
Mugabe has also conspired with others in the commitment of torture, breaching Section 134 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, which incorporates the UN Convention Against Torture 1984 into UK law, it was claimed.
Mr Tatchell said it was “inconceivable” that Mugabe, as commander in chief of the Zimbabwean defence forces, was unaware of the torture being carried out by Zimbabwe’s police, military and intelligence services.
He asked the court to challenge Mugabe’s immunity to prosecution as a head of state.
Britain, as a signatory to international human rights conventions, should allow Zimbabwean torture victims the chance to get justice since they have no hope of receiving it through their own legal system, the court was told.
Sworn affidavits from two exiled alleged Zimbabwean torture victims, documents from numerous human rights groups and global media reports were provided to show that Mugabe must be found guilty of using torture on a “massive scale”.
“It is a scale of which the president is responsible, is aware of and must be aware of,” Mr Tatchell said.
“He has taken no steps to halt it and so must bear responsibility under UK and international law.”
More than 260 Mugabe opponents have been killed and thousands more tortured since 2000, but the state-sponsored regime of violence makes it impossible to get accurate, up-to-date figures, the court was told.
Chile’s General Augusto Pinochet, Yugoslavia’s Slobodan Milosevic and Liberia’s Charles Taylor are other heads of state who have been indicted for horrendous crimes against humanity, it was argued.
