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A lawsuit filed in Belgium against the President Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia could shut off Saakashvili’s access to that country, which would close his entrée to EU institutions and NATO headquarters in Brussels. In an interview with ITAR-TASS, the plaintiff in the suit, Merab Bladadze, Georgian human rights activist in exile and spokesman for the independent Georgian media-outlet “Objective”, said, “We accuse the current President of Georgia of crimes against humanity, rigging the presidential elections in 2007, fomenting war with Russia in 2008, systematically repressing the opposition, including arresting his political opponents, breaking up rallies and demonstrations, and using physical threats and murder against opposition figures and organisations”.
According Bladadze, there are currently 93 political prisoners in Georgia, 19 of them officially recognised as “prisoners of conscience” by the International Federation for Human Rights. In addition, the total number of inmates in Georgian prisons today breaks all historical records, totalling some 45,000 {about 1 percent of the population… at its peak, the GULag had 1.7 million prisoners, a lower proportion from a larger population: editor}. Bladadze emphasised, “For a much smaller number of political prisoners, the EU has now held Byelorussian President Aleksandr Lukashenko on their ‘black list’ for 7 years. If the officials in Brussels don’t do the same for Saakashvili, we’ll take them to court. We’ve collected all the materials we need on the case and we expect to start the process within a month. Our Belgian lawyers are confident of success. We’ll shut Saakashvili out from the headquarters of the EU and NATO”.
Belgian law has a unique concept of universal jurisdiction, enacted in 1993. This allows a plaintiff to bring proceedings against the citizens of any country, including foreign government officials, for genocide or crimes against humanity. On several occasions, activists have used this law; in particular, in 2001, a group of people from the Middle East filed a lawsuit against then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, accusing him of organising the massacre at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon in 1982. After several years, at great cost, Israel’s lawyers managed to hush up the matter, but it led to the cancellation of several official visits by Sharon to Belgium, and to wide media coverage of the massacres in 1982.
8 May 2012
Denis Dubrovin
ITAR-TASS
As quoted by Novosti@mail.ru
http://news.mail.ru/politics/8884949/?frommail=1
Editor’s Note:
It’s interesting to note that Georgia admits to an incarceration rate of 536 per 100,000, higher than Russia (522), Byelorussia (381), and Kazakhstan (321), which means that Bladadze’s allegations aren’t pure moonshine, and bear investigation. Note well that the USA has a significantly higher incarceration rate than the three CIS countries named, and only about 25 percent less than Bladadze’s estimate for Georgia (at 730/100,000). I should mention that the US rate was at a steady 150 per 100,000 from the turn of the 20th century until the Reagan years, when it grew explosively to a peak in 2000 (with the greatest growth under Slobberin’ Ronnie), with no sign of abatement (but it’s levelled off, thank God). Crime has NOT increased exponentially… only imprisonment has. Politicians in search of “cheap political grace” claim that they’re “tough on crime” by keeping criminals locked up. It led to an almost 500 percent rise in imprisonment, making the USA the “Prison House of All the Nations”.
Trust me, violent crime’s a young man’s game. Most men after 40 don’t commit such offences (there are exceptions, of course, but not that many). To keep a man over 60 behind bars is idiotic. Ergo, the USA could cut its rate of imprisonment drastically by paroling older prisoners and decriminalising small amounts of recreational drugs. Not only are wars in foreign parts draining the treasury, so are unnecessary imprisonments and executions. The culprits aren’t Social Security and Medicare… it’s the generals and the pols… fancy that. End the wars, close the prisons, and tax the affluent… that’s the ticket. It can be done… if we have the will to do so, that is… but shall we?
Looking at the figures above, if Belgium’s blackballing Byelorussia, then, it should censure the USA even more so for being the worst gaoler in the world. Observe well that it doesn’t… interesting little titbit, isn’t it?
BMD
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Lawsuit Filed in Belgium against Saakashvili to Forbid Him Access to Brussels
Tags: Ariel Sharon, Belgium, EU, European Union, Georgia, lawsuit, legal affairs, Mikheil Saakashvili, NATO, political commentary, politics, President of Georgia, Republican, right-wing, Russia, Russian, United States, USA
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A lawsuit filed in Belgium against the President Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia could shut off Saakashvili’s access to that country, which would close his entrée to EU institutions and NATO headquarters in Brussels. In an interview with ITAR-TASS, the plaintiff in the suit, Merab Bladadze, Georgian human rights activist in exile and spokesman for the independent Georgian media-outlet “Objective”, said, “We accuse the current President of Georgia of crimes against humanity, rigging the presidential elections in 2007, fomenting war with Russia in 2008, systematically repressing the opposition, including arresting his political opponents, breaking up rallies and demonstrations, and using physical threats and murder against opposition figures and organisations”.
According Bladadze, there are currently 93 political prisoners in Georgia, 19 of them officially recognised as “prisoners of conscience” by the International Federation for Human Rights. In addition, the total number of inmates in Georgian prisons today breaks all historical records, totalling some 45,000 {about 1 percent of the population… at its peak, the GULag had 1.7 million prisoners, a lower proportion from a larger population: editor}. Bladadze emphasised, “For a much smaller number of political prisoners, the EU has now held Byelorussian President Aleksandr Lukashenko on their ‘black list’ for 7 years. If the officials in Brussels don’t do the same for Saakashvili, we’ll take them to court. We’ve collected all the materials we need on the case and we expect to start the process within a month. Our Belgian lawyers are confident of success. We’ll shut Saakashvili out from the headquarters of the EU and NATO”.
Belgian law has a unique concept of universal jurisdiction, enacted in 1993. This allows a plaintiff to bring proceedings against the citizens of any country, including foreign government officials, for genocide or crimes against humanity. On several occasions, activists have used this law; in particular, in 2001, a group of people from the Middle East filed a lawsuit against then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, accusing him of organising the massacre at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon in 1982. After several years, at great cost, Israel’s lawyers managed to hush up the matter, but it led to the cancellation of several official visits by Sharon to Belgium, and to wide media coverage of the massacres in 1982.
8 May 2012
Denis Dubrovin
ITAR-TASS
As quoted by Novosti@mail.ru
http://news.mail.ru/politics/8884949/?frommail=1
Editor’s Note:
It’s interesting to note that Georgia admits to an incarceration rate of 536 per 100,000, higher than Russia (522), Byelorussia (381), and Kazakhstan (321), which means that Bladadze’s allegations aren’t pure moonshine, and bear investigation. Note well that the USA has a significantly higher incarceration rate than the three CIS countries named, and only about 25 percent less than Bladadze’s estimate for Georgia (at 730/100,000). I should mention that the US rate was at a steady 150 per 100,000 from the turn of the 20th century until the Reagan years, when it grew explosively to a peak in 2000 (with the greatest growth under Slobberin’ Ronnie), with no sign of abatement (but it’s levelled off, thank God). Crime has NOT increased exponentially… only imprisonment has. Politicians in search of “cheap political grace” claim that they’re “tough on crime” by keeping criminals locked up. It led to an almost 500 percent rise in imprisonment, making the USA the “Prison House of All the Nations”.
Trust me, violent crime’s a young man’s game. Most men after 40 don’t commit such offences (there are exceptions, of course, but not that many). To keep a man over 60 behind bars is idiotic. Ergo, the USA could cut its rate of imprisonment drastically by paroling older prisoners and decriminalising small amounts of recreational drugs. Not only are wars in foreign parts draining the treasury, so are unnecessary imprisonments and executions. The culprits aren’t Social Security and Medicare… it’s the generals and the pols… fancy that. End the wars, close the prisons, and tax the affluent… that’s the ticket. It can be done… if we have the will to do so, that is… but shall we?
Looking at the figures above, if Belgium’s blackballing Byelorussia, then, it should censure the USA even more so for being the worst gaoler in the world. Observe well that it doesn’t… interesting little titbit, isn’t it?
BMD
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