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Judge who acquitted war criminals at Hague had ‘close and confidential relations’ with U.S. gov’t

The other day we did a post on charges roiling the UN’s war crimes tribunal at the Hague: that an American-Israeli judge was working to acquit Serb and Croat leaders who had been convicted of war crimes so that the precedent would not ensnare American and Israeli officials.

Well today, the Danish publication Information has a piece based on Wikileaks cables, showing that presiding judge Theodor Meron, an American-Israeli, was in touch with US officials.

Now documents from 2003 made public by WikiLeaks show that Meron had close and confidential relations with the United States government in his first term as President of the ICTY. 

»It is the perception among my former colleagues that the tribunal president takes instructions from the US government. And the WikiLeaks documents certainly do not help his case,« a former legal adviser at the Tribunal said…

At the end of last year judge Meron and some other judges started acquitting Serbs and Croats who had been convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Trial court in the Hague – people whose conviction earlier on most likely would have been upheld in the Appeals chamber.

The documents found on WikiLeaks website corroborate to a certain extent the assertions put forward by [Danish Judge Frederik] Harhoff. In two diplomatic cables sent from the U.S. embassy in the Netherlands in 2003 during Mr. Meron’s first term as President of the Tribunal he is described as coordinating his views on the court’s work with the US government….

”The perception among my colleagues is that Meron takes instructions from the US government and that this reigning in of the legal standards – as we have seen with the acquittals – would have implications for the US and probably Israel. And WikiLeaks does not help him,” said a former legal advisor to the tribunal who wished to remain anonymous in order to avoid putting his career opportunities at risk.

The legal standard at issue would obviously put American and Israeli leaders in a tight spot if war crimes prosecutions ever eventuate from Pakistan or Gaza:

Harhoff claimed the recent acquittal of two Croatians and three Serbs is contrary to the previous standard, by which top commanders are held responsible for crimes committed by subordinates in the former Yugoslavia.

As far as Meron’s critics are concerned the U.S. and Israeli government are deeply worried about the traditional doctrine of command responsibility. Until the recent acquittals it was sufficient for the prosecutor to prove that a military commander or political leader was aware of the risk that subordinates or forces allied with his army or government would commit a war crime in order to get a conviction.

Under this practice, political leaders and high-ranking officers in the United States and Israel ultimately could risk being held responsible for war crimes committed by their soldiers or by foreign forces that their governments support with arms.

About Meron:

That Mr. Meron’s and his family were victims of the Holocaust has made the controversy surrounding the use of a new legal standard to acquit convicted war criminals even more fascinating for outsiders….

Meron was born in 1930 into a Jewish family in Kalisz, Poland. Following the war he emigrated to Israel where he studied law at Hebrew University; later he graduated from Harvard Law School. He told the BBC that his initial interest in international criminal law was prompted by his (undoubtedly horrific) experiences during the war, although he now felt he had put this chapter behind him.

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I can’t say I’m surprised. The US has been dominated by war criminals for centuries. Why should now be any different?

As I said on the other thread, the problem with this theory is that it would hardly be unusual for the presiding judge of a tribunal like the ICTY to consult with the people who are deciding whether to appoint a chief prosecutor, and since all of Meron’s complaints relate to del Ponte’s management style, I can’t see how this has anything to do with the outcomes.

As the article says, Meron is an international respected international law expert, and there is zero evidence to support the assertion Harhoff made, and no reason to believe that Meron’s integrity is compromises. He did not act alone in reversing the conviction of these defendants.

“Other international law experts have come to the rescue of Meron. The American-born Associate Professor at the Melbourne Law School, Kevin Jon Heller, is plainly upset with Judge Harhoff.

“There is absolutely no evidence in the WikiLeaks documents that Meron have taken instructions from the U.S. and Israel,” said Heller on the phone from South Africa.

He continued: ‘If there is a controversy it should be about the propriety of revealing a letter about internal deliberations at the Tribunal. Harhoff is sitting on this case against Vojislav Sesejl, which is complicated. I would recuse him from the trial, he is prone to convict.'”

RE: “[A]n American-Israeli judge was working to acquit Serb and Croat leaders who had been convicted of war crimes so that the precedent would not ensnare American and Israeli officials.” ~ Weiss

MY COMMENT: This debasement of international law*by the U.S. and Israel is yet another reason I fear that Revisionist Zionism and Likudnik Israel (specifically by virtue of their inordinate sway over the U.S.) might very well be an “existential threat” to the values of The Enlightenment! ! !
“Down, down, down we [the U.S.] go into the deep, dark abyss; hand in hand with Israel.”

* SEE: “The Second Battle of Gaza: Israel’s Undermining Of International Law”, by Jeff Halper, mrzine.monthlyreview.org, 02/26/10
LINK – link to mrzine.monthlyreview.org

P.S. OTHER EXAMPLES OF ISRAEL’S VALUES TRUMPING (OVERRIDING) THE VALUES OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT – http://mondoweiss.net/2013/05/markets-propaganda-waughs.html#comment-566771