8 November 2005
Madrid, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement
filed a genocide suit against Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai in Madrid's
High Court on Tuesday in the hope of having him arrested if he visits Spain.
Lawyer Carlos Iglesias said the suit -- filed just before Chinese President
Hu Jintao's state visit to Spain next week -- accused Bo of genocide and torture
of Falun Gong practitioners when he was mayor of Dalian city and governor
of Liaoning province.
Previous suits filed by the group were rejected by the Spanish High Court,
which ruled it does not have jurisdiction over crimes committed abroad if
Spaniards are not involved.
But last month Spain's highest judicial authority, the Constitutional Court,
ruled that Spanish courts could try cases of foreign crimes even if there were
no Spanish victims.
"If he steps on Spanish soil, Spanish jurisdiction has the power to
arrest him," Iglesias said.
[...]
Spain's laws allowing the prosecution of crimes committed in other countries
have led to several high profile cases in recent years.
Judge Baltasar Garzon tried, but failed, to bring the former Chilean
dictator, President Augusto Pinochet, to trial while earlier this year the High
Court sentenced a former Argentine navy captain to 640 years in jail for crimes
against humanity.
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