9. Trials in absentia

7. Trials in absentia

(e) Trial in absentia

Two were tried in absentia.

(19) The Committee is concerned about reports of several in absentia convictions, notwithstanding the prohibition by law of trials in absentia (art. 14, para.

Some of the accused would be tried in absentia.

Principle 31 Restrictions on the exclusion of in absentia procedure

PRINCIPLE 31. RESTRICTIONS ON THE EXCLUSION OF IN ABSENTIA PROCEDURE

Principle 28 Restrictions on the exclusion of in absentia procedure

PRINCIPLE 28. RESTRICTIONS ON THE EXCLUSION OF IN ABSENTIA PROCEDURE

(l) The principle whereby no defendant may be sentenced in absentia

If not, the refusal to acknowledge trial in absentia should apply to the judgement phase alone.

If not, non recognition of trial in absentia should be limited to the judgement phase alone.

35. Unlike most Roman law countries, common law countries do not acknowledge trial in absentia in their legal systems.

42. Two of the defendants were tried in absentia and sentenced to up to nine years apos imprisonment.

66. The majority of the accused (12 out of 15) were tried in absentia, as Yugoslav law permits.

The commentary of the Human Rights Committee on the Covenant permits trials in absentia in restricted circumstances When exceptionally for justified reasons trials in absentia are held, strict observance of the right of the defence is all the more necessary (General Comment 13 (21) (d) (art. 14)).

35. Unlike most Roman law countries, the common law countries apos legal systems do not acknowledge trial in absentia.

Judgement was pronounced, in absentia, against the defendant and assets were seized from Mr. Haidera's Merrill Lynch account in New York.

As a compromise, trial in absentia might be countenanced once it has been legally established that cooperation was being refused.

43. For five days in June July 1997 the District Court in Pristina tried 15 Kosovo Albanian men, 12 of them in absentia.

He complains that, despite that finding, no effort was made to find D. T., nor was the latter sentenced in absentia.

As a compromise, might trial in absentia not be admitted only after it has been legally established that cooperation has been refused?

(n) The Government should ensure that, if trials have to take place in absentia, the defendants so tried are guaranteed the strictest possible

61. Goran Vusurovic, one of 19 Serbs known as the Sodolovci group, who had been convicted in absentia of war crimes, was arrested in August 1996.

The State party should take all necessary measures to ensure that any trials in absentia are subject to rules that guarantee the right to defence.

2.3 In 1998, the complainant was tried in absentia in Egypt for terrorist activity directed against the State before a Superior Court Martial , along with over 100 other accused.

Curiously, he was arrested in that country and, instead of being transferred to Haiti, where he had already been sentenced in absentia for another murder case, he went to Honduras.

Ben Ali was tried and convicted in absentia, after fleeing to Saudi Arabia. But in Egypt, It was done exclusively by Egyptians for Egypt, as a friend put it to me.

The Working Group transmitted the reply provided by the Government to the source, which insisted that Mr. Haidera had been arrested in May 1998 and sentenced in absentia to three years' imprisonment.

Since trials in absentia are not permitted at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the accused must be brought to The Hague, through either arrests or voluntary surrenders.

The Constitutional Court furthermore prevented the registration of the marriage of Bámaca with Mrs. Harbury recorded in a decision handed down in Texas, since the law in force in Guatemala prohibits the execution of a foreign decision handed down in absentia.

She also expressed concern about the situation of persons who, having left Croatia during the conflict, may have been tried in absentia and are unaware of the current status of proceedings against them.

37. The Serbian Ministry of Justice has confirmed to the Special Rapporteur that more than 1,500 persons, including 500 in absentia, are currently being investigated under suspicion of involvement in anti State activities and in activities of the KLA.

A strict interpretation of article 14.3 (d) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights appears to prohibit trials in absentia, although the Human Rights Committee has held that such trials are permissible, but in strictly limited circumstances.

Hussein was tried with the help of a United States led coalition Ben Ali was tried and convicted in absentia, after fleeing to Saudi Arabia. But in Egypt, It was done exclusively by Egyptians for Egypt, as a friend put it to me.

The United Nations observer was not in a position to establish whether the defendants rights were strictly observed but the Special Rapporteur wishes to draw attention to the growing body of international opinion that such trials in absentia are no longer acceptable.

22 July, in Kinshasa, eight persons, one of whom was sentenced in absentia for belonging to a sect allegedly associated with King Misele Nsemi Lubadika, the self proclaimed King Misele, who advocates the secession of the regions of Kinshasa, Bas Congo, and Bandundu.

Safeguards must be established against the misuse to further impunity of prescription, amnesty, right to asylum, refusal to extradite, absence of in absentia procedure, due obedience, legislation on repentance, the jurisdiction of military courts and the irremovability of judges.

Concerning persons tried in absentia, he pointed out that the Croatian criminal law prescribes the proper procedure and said that a list of 811 persons published some months ago contained the names of persons not covered by the Amnesty Law.

Safeguards must be introduced against any abuse for purposes of impunity of rules pertaining to prescription, amnesty, right to asylum, refusal to extradite, absence of in absentia procedure, due obedience, repentance, the jurisdiction of military courts and the irremovability of judges.

2.4 In his asylum application, the complainant claimed that he had been sentenced to penal servitude for life in absentia on charges of terrorism linked to Islamic fundamentalism, and that, if returned, he would be executed, as others accused in the same proceedings allegedly had been.

Until we get our hands on those fugitives it will be very difficult to predict the length of the mandate, unless we can foresee now that those individuals still at large may never be arrested, in which case it would be necessary to try them in absentia.

4.14 The State party advises that the complainant's current legal status is, according to the Egyptian Ministries of Justice and the Interior, that he is presently serving a sentence for his conviction, in absentia, by a military court for, among other crimes, murder and terrorist activities.

He also refers to recent case law of the Council of State which he maintains demonstrates the inefficacy of domestic remedies in two similar cases.a In those cases, which involved deportation to Algeria, the Council of State dismissed the risks faced by the persons concerned, but the Algerian authorities subsequently produced death sentences passed in absentia.