German Court Issues a Warrant for the Arrest of former Argentine President Jorge Videla and His Accomplices

Editor’s Note: The Nuremberg district court has issued an arrest warrant against former Argentine President, Jorge Videla, and his accomplices as those responsible for the murder of German citizens in Argentina.

There have been at least 824 innocent Falun Gong practitioners persecuted to death since former Chinese President, Jiang Zemin, began the persecution against Falun Gong four years ago. The arrest warrant issued by the Nuremberg district court indicates that Jiang Zemin, Luo Gan, Li Lanqing and other accomplices will soon be brought to justice.

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Epoch Times' German correspondent Zhou Rende reported that the Nuremberg district court has issued official arrest warrants against three former Argentine officials: former president Jorge Videla, former naval commander-in-chief, Emilio Massera and former army leader, Carlos Guillermo Suarez Mason. The procurator’s office in Nuremberg conducted a long investigation to establish this case. The defendants were found to have been responsibile for the murders of German citizens in Argentina.

From 1976 to 1983, Argentina was ruled by a military dictatorship. Back then, Argentina saw more violence than other Latin America countries. According to an estimate made by a human rights organisation, there were more than 30,000 people kidnapped, tortured or slaughtered during that period of time. Among them were about one hundred Germans.

The procurator’s office in Nuremberg conducted a detailed investigation into the miserable experience that two German students had suffered in Argentina. One of them was Elizabeth Kaesemann, a student in Sociology and Theology from Tübingen, Southern Germany. She had devoted herself to working in the slums of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. On the evening of May 23rd 1977, she was killed together with several others. She was only twenty nine. Another victim was twenty four year old Klaus Manfred Zieschank, a student from the University of Technology, Munich. He went to Buenos Aires in 1976 and on March 24th 1976, two days after the military coup, he was kidnapped and brutally tortured. Like several thousand other people, his body was thrown into international waters so that the torture could be covered up.

When interviewed by "Deutsche Welle", the spokesman for the procurator’s office in Nuremberg said that even though the three defendants did not shoot the students in person, they still need to take responsibility for the slaughter because they had utilised the power of the state to commit these crimes.

Although the Nuremberg district court has issued arrest warrants, it has not made an official request to the Argentine authorities to extradite the three officials to Germany. Observers believe it is more likely that Argentina will conduct the trial. With support from the current President, Nestour Kirchner, the Argentine congress abolished an amnesty law that has been in effect for quite some time. This symbolises the end of an era where the military governed the law. The former president Jorge Videla is currently under house arrest because of his crimes.

The attorney that filed the lawsuit against the Argentine officials is a member of the organisation “Anti-Immunity Alliance” and filed the lawsuit on behalf of the victim’s families. The organisation was formed by representatives of human rights groups, churches and the legislature. Mr. Wolfgang Kaleck, a noted German lawyer who specialises in criminal law, is the primary attorney handling the case. He was not surprised to learn of the court’s decision and said that they “view it as a major success”.

Two weeks ago, Mr. Kaleck submitted an 86-page-long indictment to the German’s Federal Procurator’s Office in Karlsruhe on behalf of forty plaintiffs from Germany, China, Ireland, Canada, Australia and USA. The lawsuit was filed against the former Chinese president, Jiang Zemin, and other Chinese political leaders who are responsible for the persecution of Falun Gong. They are charged of instigating crimes of genocide, torture, murder and infringements of human rights. Surely Jiang is next to be brought to justice.