Adolfo Scilingo (born 28 July 1946 in Bahía Blanca ) is a former Argentine Navy officer who is serving 30 years (the legally applied limit, although he was sentenced to 640 years) in a Spanish prison after being convicted on 19 April 2005 for crimes against humanity , including extra-judicial execution .
125-581: Scilingo was charged under Spain's universal jurisdiction laws by investigating magistrate Baltazar Garzón with genocide, 30 counts of murder, 93 of causing injury, 255 of terrorism and 286 of torture. He denied the charges but initially refused to plead, claiming to be unwell. In 2005 doctors ruled Scilingo was fit to stand trial. The murder charges were related to 30 drugged political prisoners thrown out of government aircraft during Leopoldo Galtieri 's military junta 's Dirty War against leftist insurgents between 1976 and 1983. Scilingo, who retired from
250-449: A "violation of the sovereignty of a Member State". Israel and Argentina issued a joint statement on 3 August, after further negotiations, admitting the violation of Argentine sovereignty but agreeing to end the dispute. The Israeli court ruled that the circumstances of Eichmann's capture had no bearing on the legality of his trial. His trial, which opened on 11 April 1961, was televised and broadcast internationally, intended to educate about
375-708: A case against the Guatemalan military leadership in a Spanish Court. Six officials, among them Efraín Ríos Montt and Óscar Humberto Mejía , were formally charged on 7 July 2006 to appear in the Spanish National Court after Spain's Constitutional Court ruled in September 2005, the Spanish Constitutional Court declaration that the "principle of universal jurisdiction prevails over the existence of national interests", following
500-456: A case in which seven former Chinese officials, including the former Communist Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin and former Premier Li Peng were alleged to have participated in a genocide in Tibet . This investigation follows a Spanish Constitutional Court (26 September 2005) ruling that Spanish courts could try genocide cases even if they did not involve Spanish nationals. China denounced
625-676: A false name Eichmann traveled from Germany to Italy in the early 1950s, with the aid of Nazi sympathizer and monk Anton Weber. He got a humanitarian passport from the Red Cross in Geneva and an Argentine visa under the name "Ricardo Klement, technician." In 2007, his fake passport was discovered in court archives in Buenos Aires by a student investigating the abduction. Eichmann arrived in Buenos Aires in August 1950. On arrival he lodged at
750-463: A former doctor and SS officer who conducted heinous and gruesome experiments on concentration camp prisoners, in Argentina. Mossad's director at the time, Isser Harel, claimed in 1991 that Wiesenthal's work did not contribute to Eichmann's arrest but rather jeopardized it and also prevented a planned arrest of Mengele. Historian Deborah Lipstadt wrote in 2011 that Wiesenthal played no direct role in
875-453: A friend or lover of the 16-year-old Sylvia Hermann. She was a beautiful daughter of Lothar Hermann, a German immigrant of Jewish origin who had been interred at Dachau (where Eichmann had served) for his socialist activities. In 1938 he fled to Argentina, and in the 1950s he settled in Buenos Aires with his family. The Hermann family appeared as non-Jewish German immigrants. Klaus often visited Sylvia's home, and one day they got to talking about
1000-764: A grievance with the United Nations for Canada's failure to invoke universal jurisdiction to enforce the Convention Against Torture , a petition on which action is pending. On 14 February 2002, the International Court of Justice in the ICJ Arrest Warrant Case concluded that state officials may have immunity under international law while serving in office. The court stated that immunity was not granted to state officials for their own benefit, but instead to ensure
1125-451: A group that would secretly capture Eichmann and bring him to Israel. Ten people were put to the task, including a disguise expert, a doctor, a document forger, a melee specialist and Harel himself. One of the agents was a survivor of Auschwitz where his parents were sent to the gas chamber. "We have not only the right, but also a moral duty to bring this man to justice [...] We are embarking on a historic journey. It goes without saying that this
1250-556: A loving and completely normal family man, and lived according to completely fixed routines. He got off the bus every night at 7:40 p.m., then walked along a deserted road to his house. The agents assumed it would be easy to capture Eichmann, and that the main problem would be getting him out of Argentina and transported to Israel. The plan was first to transport Eichmann out of the country by plane in connection with Argentina's national day, when Israeli diplomats were invited for an official visit. They were due to arrive on 19 May, and
1375-597: A member of Liwa al-Quds , was convicted in the Netherlands for war crimes and crimes against humanity carried out during the Syrian civil war while fighting on the side of Syrian government forces. He was sentenced to twelve years of imprisonment. A case against the former dictator of Chad, Hissène Habré , started in 2015 in Senegal . Spanish law recognizes the principle of universal jurisdiction. Article 23.4 of
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#17327727652771500-554: A more passive tone, referring to the usage of this principle to ensure that the specific country is not a territorial refuge for any suspects of international crimes. Universal jurisdiction differs from a state's prosecuting crimes under its own laws, whether on its own territory ( territorial jurisdiction ) or abroad ( extraterritorial jurisdiction ). As an example, the United States asserts jurisdiction over stateless vessels carrying illicit drugs on international waters—but here
1625-498: A particular geographic location, Nazi "crimes against the peace of the world"—even if the acts were perfectly legal at the time in Fascist Germany. Indeed, one charge was Nazi law itself became a crime, law distorted into a bludgeon of oppression. The Nuremberg trials supposed universal standards by which one nation's laws, and acts of its officials, can be judged; an international rule of law unbound by national borders. On
1750-426: A perfectly normal family lived there. The agents tracked down Eichmann's residence at Calle Garibaldi 14. On March 19, 1960, an agent drove slowly past the house, and at 2 p.m. he saw a man in his 50s with a high forehead and glasses who was about to carry in the laundry. After Eichmann was definitely identified, he was constantly shadowed by Israeli agents: there was always an agent on the same bus, always an agent in
1875-481: A possible West German demand for extradition. West Germany and Argentina did not have an extradition agreement, and Argentina was very slow in following up on West German extradition demands so that many Nazis easily escaped. When Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion learned that Eichmann was probably in Argentina, he commissioned the Mossad intelligence service to look for him. Mossad leader Isser Harel put together
2000-477: A secluded house. There, they killed a man they thought was Eichmann; after a few weeks it was clarified that the victim was not in fact Eichmann but another SS officer who had contributed to the Holocaust. Haganah agents then hatched a plan to kidnap Vera Eichmann and her sons in the hope that it would "smoke out" Eichmann, but this was rejected by Haganah headquarters. The hunt for Eichmann was then suspended when
2125-495: A statute specific to Nazi crimes against Jews, its Supreme Court claimed universal jurisdiction over crimes against humanity. Eichmann's defense lawyer argued that Israel did not have jurisdiction on account of Israel not having come into existence until 1948. The Genocide Convention also did not come into effect until 1951, and the Genocide Convention does not automatically provide for universal jurisdiction. It
2250-543: A tip about Eichmann in Argentina and alerted German, American and Israeli intelligence. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV, Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz) knew of Eichmann's cover name and his connections with Fritsch. The West German government, led by Konrad Adenauer , was concerned about what Eichmann could tell about Adenauer's former national security adviser Hans Globke , who
2375-574: A view to protecting West Germany from Nazi influence, but they did little concretely. The Germans had the same information as the CIA (Eichmann's cover name was misspelled as Clemens) and knew that Eberhard Fritsch knew Eichmann's whereabouts. An intelligence report from June 1952 stated that Eichmann was living in Argentina under the misspelled name. According to the documents, the CIA knew that Eichmann had been in Argentina since 1952. In 1953, Wiesenthal received
2500-752: A whole, universal jurisdiction holds that such acts are beyond the scope of any single nation's laws. Instead, these crimes are considered to violate norms owed to the global community ( erga omnes ) and fundamental principles of international law ( jus cogens ), making them prosecutable in any court that invokes this principle. While universal jurisdiction has been championed by organizations such as Amnesty International for ensuring that perpetrators of grave crimes find no refuge, it remains controversial. Critics, like former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger , argue that it undermines national sovereignty and risks turning judicial proceedings into politically motivated trials. The principle gained prominence following
2625-400: Is a legal principle that allows states or international organizations to prosecute individuals for serious crimes, such as genocide , war crimes , and crimes against humanity , regardless of where the crime was committed and irrespective of the accused's nationality or residence . Rooted in the belief that certain offenses are so heinous that they threaten the international community as
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#17327727652772750-478: Is also argued that Israeli agents obtained Eichmann illegally, violating international law when they seized and kidnapped Eichmann, and brought him to Israel to stand trial. The Argentinian government settled the dispute diplomatically with Israel. Israel argued universal jurisdiction based on the "universal character of the crimes in question" and that the crimes committed by Eichmann were not only in violation of Israel law, but were considered "grave offenses against
2875-616: Is no ordinary task. We must arrest the man who has the blood of our people on his hands," said Harel. The operation was top secret: Israel's embassy in Buenos Aires knew nothing and the mission was a violation of several UN conventions. For example, Argentina had to issue an extradition order before Eichmann could be taken out of the country. Using false passports, Mossad agents traveled to Buenos Aires in early 1960, and began an intensive and more than three-month long surveillance of Eichmann. The agents rented eight cars, as well as seven houses and apartments, which served as hiding places. One of
3000-640: Is outlined in Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal court as a serious criminal act committed as part of a "widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack", including murder, rape, slavery, persecution, extermination, and torture. Universal jurisdiction over the crimes enumerated in the Rome Statute was rejected by the signing parties, however universal jurisdiction
3125-740: Is running a court and proceeding according to common law. This is a little too sanctimonious a fraud to meet my old-fashioned ideas." Kenneth Roth , the executive director of Human Rights Watch , argues that universal jurisdiction allowed Israel to try Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem in 1961. Roth also argues that clauses in treaties such as the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the United Nations Convention Against Torture of 1984, which requires signatory states to pass municipal laws that are based on
3250-589: Is unclear whether he welcomed Nazi criminals with will or whether he accepted them for purely practical reasons. According to Der Spiegel, old Nazis in the West German foreign service were often stationed in South America where the diplomats protected war criminals and other Nazis fleeing justice. After Perón's death, Argentina became less hospitable to former Nazis. Eichmann did not know any Spanish when he arrived in Argentina, but he quickly learned
3375-710: Is well known to the German community in Buenos Aires, including Sassen. Der Spiegel concludes that the BND did not protect Eichmann, while the embassy's role is unclear. In 2006, 27,000 pages of classified information were made public by the Central Intelligence Agency . The documents show that in March 1958 (or earlier) the CIA had detailed knowledge of Eichmann's whereabouts. The CIA chose not to inform Israel of this, to protect high-ranking politicians in what
3500-654: Is what allows the United Nations Security Council to refer specific situations to the ICC. This has only happened with Darfur (2005) and Libya (2011). In addition the United Nations has set up geographically specific courts to investigate and prosecute crimes against humanity under a theory of universal jurisdiction, such as the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (1994), and the International Criminal Tribunal for
3625-726: The Center for Constitutional Rights tried first in Switzerland and then in Canada to prosecute former U.S. President George W. Bush on behalf of persons tortured in US detention camps, invoking the universal jurisdiction doctrine. Bush cancelled his trip to Switzerland after news of the planned prosecution came to light. Bush has traveled to Canada but the Canadian government shut down the prosecution in advance of his arrest. The center has filed
3750-581: The Commentaries of Gaius , says that "All nations ... are governed partly by their own particular laws, and partly by those laws which are common to all, [those that] natural Reason appoints for all mankind." Expanding on the classical understanding of universal law accessible by reason, in the seventeenth century, the Dutch jurist Grotius laid the foundations for universal jurisdiction in modern international law, promulgating in his De Jure Praedae ( Of
3875-650: The Counterintelligence Corps wrote in a memo on Eichmann that the prosecution of war criminals was no longer a priority task for the US. From the 19th century, there was some emigration from the German-speaking part of Europe to Argentina. After World War I, many German-speaking Argentines became involved in a political debate about Heimat , 'homeland' and Deutschtum , 'Germanness'. Argentina's strong economy prompted President Juan Perón to work for independence from
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4000-638: The Mandate for Palestine ended and the State of Israel was established in 1948. With the ensuing Arab-Israeli War , the hunt for Eichmann was nearly forgotten. Israeli authorities focused on domestic matters and withdrew many of their agents in Austria. Yechiel Grienschpan, a Jewish leader at Lublin during World War II, organized a group of ten war comrades who hunted Eichmann down. The group searched in Europe,
4125-510: The Nuremberg trials after World War II, which prosecuted Nazi officials for crimes against humanity, even when such acts were legal under German law at the time. Since then, it has been invoked in various international tribunals and national courts to address impunity for crimes committed in conflict zones or under repressive regimes. Notably, universal jurisdiction has been applied in cases like Israel’s prosecution of Adolf Eichmann in 1961,
4250-783: The Schutzstaffel , and before and during the Second World War was head of Jewish affairs in the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). He organized the identification and transportation of those to be sent to the concentration camps from Western Europe and the Balkans. During the Holocaust in Hungary he personally oversaw the deportation of 437,000 people to extermination camps in occupied Poland. Before
4375-577: The Syrian civil war . Eichmann trial The Eichmann trial was the 1961 trial in Israel of major Holocaust perpetrator Adolf Eichmann who was kidnapped in Argentina by Israeli agents and brought to Israel to stand trial. Eichmann was a senior Nazi party member and served at the rank of Obersturmbenführer (Lieutenant-Colonel) in the SS , and was one of the people primarily responsible for
4500-486: The trials of Rwandan genocide perpetrators , and the prosecution of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet . The establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) further strengthened this concept, though its use remains contentious, often constrained by political considerations and the practical challenges of enforcing extraterritorial justice. The Institutes of Justinian , echoing
4625-537: The 2013 Ghouta chemical attack and the 2018 Douma chemical attack . On 21 May 2024, a Paris Criminal Court started a trial in absentia of Ali Mamlouk , former head of the National Security Bureau, Jamil Hassan , former director of the Air Force intelligence service, and Abdel Salam Mahmoud , former head of investigations for the service, for the deaths of two French-Syrian citizens during
4750-638: The Australian Constitution, to exercise universal jurisdiction over war crimes in the Polyukhovich v Commonwealth case of 1991. In 1993, Belgium's Parliament passed a "law of universal jurisdiction" (sometimes referred to as "Belgium's genocide law"), allowing it to judge people accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide. In 2001, four Rwandan citizens were convicted and given sentences from 12 to 20 years' imprisonment for their involvement in 1994 Rwandan genocide . There
4875-501: The Eichmanns. Lothar Hermann learned who Eichmann was a few years later and began correspondence with Fritz Bauer , the chief prosecutor in the West German state of Hesse . Bauer sent Hermann a description of Eichmann and asked for more details. Sylvia and Lothar Hermann traveled to Buenos Aires, where Eichmann himself opened the door when Sylvia knocked. Hermann also contacted Israeli officials (hoping they were more interested than
5000-540: The Former Yugoslavia (1993). The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia investigates war crimes that took place in the Balkans in the 1990s. It convicted former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić on 10 charges relating to directing murders, purges and other abuses against civilians, including genocide in connection with the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica; he
5125-467: The German Juhrman boarding house in the suburb of Vicente Lopez. This boarding house was especially geared towards Nazi immigrants. During World War II, Eichmann was relatively unknown outside of Germany. The Haganah , a Zionist paramilitary organization, interrogated refugees who came to Mandatory Palestine from Germany, Hungary and Poland, and by 1943 had formed a clear picture that Eichmann
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5250-531: The Government of Sierra Leone. Taylor contested the Special Court's jurisdiction, claiming immunity, but the Special Court for Sierra Leone concluded in 2004 that "the sovereign equality of states does not prevent a head of state from being prosecuted before an international criminal tribunal or court". The Special Court convicted Taylor in 2012 and sentenced him to fifty years' imprisonment, making him
5375-552: The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda ..., and the future International Criminal Court ." In 2003, Charles Taylor , the former president of Liberia , was served with an arrest warrant by the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) that was set up under the auspices of a treaty that binds only the United Nations and
5500-563: The Judicial Power Organization Act (LOPJ), enacted on 1 July 1985, establishes that Spanish courts have jurisdiction over crimes committed by Spaniards or foreign citizens outside Spain when such crimes can be described according to Spanish criminal law as genocide, terrorism, or some other, as well as any other crime that, according to international treaties or conventions, must be prosecuted in Spain. On 25 July 2009,
5625-649: The Law of Captures ) and later Dē jūre bellī ac pācis ( Of the Law of War and Peace ) the Enlightenment view that there are universal principles of right and wrong. According to Henry Kissinger , at about the same time, international law came to recognize the analogous concept of hostēs hūmānī generis ("enemies of the human race") applying to pirates or hijackers whose crimes took place outside of nation-state territories, while universal jurisdiction subjecting senior officials or heads of states as criminal subjects
5750-636: The Menchu suit brought against the officials for atrocities committed in the Guatemalan Civil War . In June 2003, Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón jailed Ricardo Miguel Cavallo , a former Argentine naval officer, who was extradited from Mexico to Spain pending his trial on charges of genocide and terrorism relating to the years of Argentina's military dictatorship. On 11 January 2006, the Spanish High Court agreed to investigate
5875-579: The Middle East and South America. After Grienschpan was killed in West Germany under unclear circumstances in 1948, the group disbanded. Der Spiegel revealed in 2011 that Israel had already prepared the abduction from Austria in 1949. The background was a rumor that Eichmann was planning a visit to his wife in Bad Aussee. A group of Israeli commandos traveled to Salzburg , where a plane
6000-552: The Navy in 1986, later attracted great notoriety for publicly confessing in March 1995 to journalist Horacio Verbitsky to participating in the so-called death flights - the first of a series of public confessions collectively called in Argentina the 'Scilingo effect' (Feitlowitz 1999). Scilingo was serving a jail term for fraud in Argentina at the time. The court found Scilingo guilty of crimes against humanity and torture and sentenced him to 640 years in jail. 21 years for each for
6125-529: The Nazi elite in Buenos Aires. His wife and sons came to Argentina in 1952. In 1955 Vera Eichmann registered under the maiden name of Liebl, but began a new life as Catalina Klement. They moved to a small rented house on the outskirts of Olivos. In 1959 Eichmann bought a plot of land in Calle Garibaldi in the suburb of Bancalari near San Fernando de la Buena Vista where Eichmann built a house. The house
6250-557: The Nazis in South America, including Eberhard Fritsch, Hans-Ulrich Rudel and Otto Skorzeny . Eichmann was not an American citizen, he had not killed American citizens or committed crimes on American territory and was therefore not of interest to American justice in the eyes of the US. The three Western Allies had left it to the Federal Republic (West Germany) to prosecute Nazis and the United States would limit itself to supporting
6375-644: The Rome Statute, Canada passed the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act . Michael Byers , a University of British Columbia law professor, has argued that these laws go further than the Rome Statute, providing Canadian courts with jurisdiction over acts pre-dating the ICC and occurring in territories outside of ICC member-states; "as a result, anyone who is present in Canada and alleged to have committed genocide, torture ... anywhere, at any time, can be prosecuted [in Canada]". François Bazaramba
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#17327727652776500-699: The Rwandan genocide, and complaints filed against the Chadian ex-President Hissène Habré (dubbed the "African Pinochet "). In September 2005, Habré was indicted for crimes against humanity, torture, war crimes and other human rights violations by a Belgian court. Arrested in Senegal following requests from Senegalese courts, he was tried and convicted for war crimes by the Special Tribunal in Senegal in 2016 and sentenced to life in prison. To implement
6625-412: The Second World War over fifteen states have conducted investigations, commenced prosecutions and completed trials based on universal jurisdiction for the crimes or arrested people with a view to extraditing the persons to a state seeking to prosecute them. These states include: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Mexico, Netherlands, Senegal , Spain, Switzerland,
6750-607: The Spanish Congress passed a law that limits the competence of the Audiencia Nacional under Article 23.4 to cases in which Spaniards are victims, there is a relevant link to Spain, or the alleged perpetrators are in Spain. The law still has to pass the Senate, the high chamber, but passage is expected because it is supported by both major parties. In 1999, Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú brought
6875-505: The Supreme Court of Spain upheld the Court of Appeals decision against conducting an official inquiry into the IDF's targeted killing of Shehadeh. Universal jurisdiction was used in Sweden for the trial of Hamid Nouri for involvement in the 1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners . In 2022, Nouri was sentenced to a life in prison. In April 2024, a Swedish court started a trial of Syrian Brigadier general Mohammed Hamo for indiscriminate attacks against civilians in Homs during
7000-451: The Syrian civil war. Under the German legal system, international crimes are offenses that require public prosecution ( Offizialdelikte ) and are not dependent on the victims' individual criminal complaints to initiate the prosecution. Nikola Jorgić on 26 September 1997 was convicted of genocide in Germany and sentenced to four terms of life imprisonment for his involvement in the Bosnian genocide . His appeal following his conviction
7125-415: The US reaches across national borders to enforce its own law, rather than invoking universal jurisdiction and trans-national standards of right and wrong. States attempting to police acts committed by foreign nationals on foreign territory tends to be more controversial than a state prosecuting its own citizens wherever they may be found. Bases on which a state might exercise jurisdiction in this way include
7250-788: The United Kingdom and the United States. Amnesty writes: All states parties to the Convention against Torture and the Inter-American Convention are obliged whenever a person suspected of torture is found in their territory to submit the case to their prosecuting authorities for the purposes of prosecution, or to extradite that person. In addition, it is now widely recognized that states, even those that are not states parties to these treaties, may exercise universal jurisdiction over torture under customary international law. Examples of particular states invoking universal jurisdiction are Israel's prosecution of Eichmann in 1961 (see § Israel below) and Spain's prosecution of South American dictators and torturers (see § Spain below). More recently,
7375-435: The United States and to counter American dominance. Perón tried to approach fascist Francisco Franco in Spain as a future ally. Perón promoted immigration with the goal of so-called "racial improvements" by mixing the population with European immigrants. It is estimated that between 200 to 800 Nazis fled to Argentina from the end of World War II until 1955. Perón believed that the country needed engineers and officers and it
7500-479: The West Germans) who worked closely with Hermann to plan an arrest. Bauer secretly tipped off Mossad about Eichmann's whereabouts and had a meeting with agent Eric Cohn in November 1957. Bauer feared that the West German authorities would take no action against Eichmann. In 1958, Mossad sent an agent who quickly concluded that a prominent Nazi could not live in the Olivos area, and the agency eventually lost interest. In December 1959, Hermann contacted Tuvia Friedman,
7625-420: The abduction of Eichmann was a limited violation of Argentine law. According to Meir, the violation had to be seen in relation to the uniqueness of Eichmann's crimes and in relation to the motives of the people who carried out the abduction. Meir insisted that the Security Council had no jurisdiction, because the abduction was carried out by private individuals, not the State of Israel. Meir maintained that Eichmann
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#17327727652777750-489: The abduction, claiming he had been taken by Jewish volunteers. On May 23, 1960, Ben Gurion announced in the Knesset that Eichmann had been captured with the government's blessing and described Eichmann as the greatest criminal of all time. He promised that the mass murderer would soon be brought to justice. Ben Gurion's announcement was followed by long and intense applause. Argentina's UN ambassador Mario Amadeo demanded reparations from Israel after Eichmann's kidnapping. At
7875-414: The agents had to be extradited there to face charges. Argentina reported the case to the United Nations Security Council , which sought a compromise to avoid an escalation of the dispute. Amadeo argued that the abduction would set a dangerous precedent if it remained unpunished and that there could be no exceptions to a nation's sovereignty. Israeli Foreign Minister Golda Meir argued in her response that
8000-535: The agents located Eichmann's father who ran a shop in Linz , and asked him where his son was. The father insisted that his son was dead. Simon Wiesenthal , then a young architect, settled in Linz to keep an eye on Eichmann's father, shadowing his visitors. Wiesenthal made his way into the man's apartment and found a document summarizing Eichmann's life in his own handwriting. In 1946, Haganah agents traveled to Austria to search for Eichmann's family. They found Eichmann's wife and brother in Bad Aussee and followed them to
8125-679: The agents took him by force into a waiting car. During questioning, he immediately acknowledged his true identity. While held prisoner in a penthouse in Buenos Aires, he wrote a declaration that he voluntarily joined Israel. The agent that had originally gotten Eichmann's attention, Peter Malkin , later said that Eichmann was a normal-looking person who did not look like he had killed millions of Jews despite having organized it. The day after his kidnapping, his then-employer, Mercedes-Benz , without officially knowing what had happened to him, removed Eichmann from their pension rolls. The car with Eichmann escaped unnoticed through airport security. Eichmann
8250-426: The authorities would not release him for that reason. Wisliceny made a list of places where he thought Eichmann could have been hiding. Agents from the Haganah interrogated Wisliceny in Bratislava about Eichmann, and received information including a list of women whom Wisliceny believed were prepared to hide Eichmann and a photograph of Eichmann with one of his former mistresses. Haganah agents primarily operated under
8375-463: The case entitled ICJ Arrest Warrant Case . The ICJ's decision issued on 14 February 2002 found that it did not have jurisdiction to consider the question of universal jurisdiction, instead deciding the question on the basis of immunity of high-ranking state officials. However, the matter was addressed in separate and dissenting opinions, such as that of President Guillaume who concluded that universal jurisdiction exists only in relation to piracy; and
8500-404: The case to Interpol on the grounds that Interpol had no scope to investigate political crimes. In 1958 the BfV asked the embassy for assistance in the search for Klement/Eichmann and the embassy replied that they had not succeeded in finding this person who was unlikely to be in Argentina and who was probably in the Middle East. BfV subsequently dropped the case. Der Spiegel writes that the embassy
8625-418: The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The Malaysian human rights group SUARAM expressed concern about the KLWCC's procedures, and former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Param Cumaraswamy , described the KLWCC as having no legal basis, and was sceptical about fair trials taking place in absentia . In January 2024, Mustafa A.,
8750-437: The complaint (or 50, according to other reports). The Israeli chief of operations and prime minister apologized officially, saying they were unaware, due to faulty intelligence, that civilians were in the house. The investigation in the case was halted on 30 June 2009 by a decision of a panel of 18 judges of the Audiencia Nacional. The Spanish Court of Appeals rejected the lower court's decision, and on appeal in April 2010
8875-469: The concept of universal jurisdiction, indicate widespread international acceptance of the concept. Amongst the vast spread of literature surrounding the theory, application, and history of Universal Jurisdiction, there are two approaches: the "global enforcer" and the "no safe haven". "Global enforcer" refers to the usage of Universal Jurisdiction as an active way of preventing and punishing international crimes committed anywhere while "no safe haven" takes on
9000-642: The crimes committed against Jews by Nazi Germany , which had been secondary to the Nuremberg trials which addressed other war crimes of the Nazi regime. Prosecutor and Attorney General Gideon Hausner also tried to challenge the portrayal of Jewish functionaries that had emerged in the earlier trials, showing them at worst as victims forced to carry out Nazi decrees while minimizing the "gray zone" of morally questionable behavior. Hausner later wrote that available archival documents "would have sufficed to get Eichmann sentenced ten times over"; nevertheless, he summoned more than 100 witnesses, most of whom had never met
9125-408: The criminal law of peoples"), which implemented the treaty creating the International Criminal Court into domestic law. The law was passed in 2002 and up to 2014. It has been used once, in the trial of Rwandan rebel leader Ignace Murwanashyaka . In 2015 he was found guilty and sentenced to 13 years in prison. Furthermore, section 7(2) of German Criminal Code Strafgesetzbuch (stGB) establishes
9250-525: The death of some six million Jews . Eichmann played a major part in the execution of the Holocaust. He fled to Argentina at the end of the Second World War , but was abducted by Israeli Mossad agents in 1960, and transported to Jerusalem to stand trial. Eichmann was held at a fortified police station in Yagur in northern Israel for nine months prior to his trial. Eichmann was an officer in
9375-639: The decision, and Israeli officials refused to provide information requested by the Spanish court. The attack killed the founder and leader of the military wing of the Islamic militant organisation Hamas , Salah Shehade , who Israel said was responsible for hundreds of civilian deaths. The attack also killed 14 others (including his wife and 9 children). It had targeted the building where Shahade hid in Gaza City. It also wounded some 150 Palestinians, according to
9500-577: The defendant, for didactic purposes. Defense attorney Robert Servatius refused the offers of twelve survivors who agreed to testify for the defense, exposing what they considered immoral behavior by other Jews. Political philosopher Hannah Arendt reported on the trial in her book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil . The book had enormous impact in popular culture, but its ideas have become increasingly controversial . Eichmann
9625-433: The dissenting opinion of Judge Oda who recognised piracy, hijacking, terrorism and genocide as crimes subject to universal jurisdiction. On 1 August 2003, Belgium repealed the law on universal jurisdiction, and introduced a new law on extraterritorial jurisdiction similar to or more restrictive than that of most other European countries. However, some cases that had already started continued. These included those concerning
9750-516: The effective performance of their functions on behalf of their respective states. The court also stated that when abroad, state officials may enjoy immunity from arrest in another state on criminal charges, including charges of war crimes or crimes against humanity. But the ICJ qualified its conclusions, saying that state officers "may be subject to criminal proceedings before certain international criminal courts, where they have jurisdiction. Examples include
9875-582: The fate of the Jews during the Second World War. Klaus said that his father was a Nazi and an officer in the Wehrmacht , and said that his father would have preferred it if the Germans had completed the extermination of Jews. Sylvia never visited Eichmann's residence and was unaware he used the surname Klement. The Hermann family moved to Coronel Suárez , several hours away from Buenos Aires, and lost contact with
10000-500: The first head of state since the Nuremberg trials after World War II to be tried and convicted by an international court. In sum, the question whether a former head of state might have immunity depends on which international court or tribunal endeavors to try him, how the court is constituted, and how it interprets its own mandate. The High Court of Australia confirmed the authority of the Australian Parliament, under
10125-650: The following: Established in The Hague in 2002, the International Criminal Court (ICC) is an international tribunal of general jurisdiction (defined by treaty) to prosecute state-members' citizens for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression, as specified by several international agreements, most prominently the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court signed in 1998. A serious international crime
10250-458: The guise of being German or Dutch Nazis who spoke good German. In this way a male agent gained access to Vera Eichmann and socialized with her while she lived in Bad Aussee . The agent got Vera a maid with fair hair and "Aryan" appearance; the maid was actually a Jewish female Haganah agent. Vera still maintained that Eichmann was dead and revealed nothing while the maid listened. Eventually,
10375-476: The head of a search of all POW camps to find Eichmann's associates. Next, Wisliceny wanted to track down his wife Veronika, or Vera for short, who he was sure knew where her husband had been hiding. While in prison in Bratislava , Wisliceny prepared over 20 densely-written pages detailing Eichmann, including physical details such as eye color, gold teeth and scars. Wisliceny offered to track Eichmann down, but
10500-618: The head of the Nazi Crime Documentation Center in Haifa, who had announced a large bounty on Eichmann. Hermann promised Friedman the name and other exact details about Eichmann. After a renewed call for information on Hermann, Mossad took interest again in early 1960. In 1972, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir made sure Hermann received the promised bounty. West German authorities had little interest in tracking down Eichmann. Der Spiegel revealed in 2011 that it
10625-410: The houses was isolated and served as headquarters. A few days after his arrival, this villa was transformed into a small fort with an alarm system and a cell where Eichmann was to be held captive until his departure for Israel. A female Mossad agent stayed in the house the whole time disguised as a maid; her role was to cook for the group, keep the house clean and give the outside world the impression that
10750-766: The hunt for Eichmann. Tuviah Friedman, who had been hunting Eichmann since the end of the war, began organizing the Institute for the Documentation of War Crimes in Israel. In 1959, Friedman received a tip from the West German Ministry of Justice that Eichmann was in Kuwait, a country where the Israeli government was unwilling to spend resources organizing a manhunt. Upon finding this out, Friedman then told
10875-489: The implementation of the Final Solution . He was responsible for the Nazis' train shipments from across Europe to the concentration camps , even managing the shipment to Hungary directly, where 564,000 Jews died . After World War II he fled to Argentina, living under the pseudonym "Ricardo Clement" until his capture in 1960 by Mossad . The kidnapping of Eichmann was criticized by the United Nations, calling it
11000-537: The infractions that can be judged in France when they were committed outside French territory either by French citizens or foreigners. The following infractions may be prosecuted: In February 2019, Abdulhamid Chaban , a former soldier of the Syrian Army , was arrested and indicted for complicity in crimes against humanity during the Syrian civil war , whereas Majdi Nema , a former spokesperson for Jaysh al-Islam ,
11125-558: The invasion of Iraq. In May 2012, the tribunal again under what it saw as universal jurisdiction took testimony from victims of torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo , and convicted in absentia former President Bush, former Vice President Dick Cheney , former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld , former Deputy Assistant Attorneys General John Yoo and Jay Bybee , former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales , and former counselors David Addington and William Haynes II for conspiracy to commit war crimes. The tribunal referred its findings to
11250-581: The investigation as an interference in its internal affairs and dismissed the allegations as "sheer fabrication". The case was shelved in 2010, because of a law passed in 2009 that restricted High Court investigations to those "involving Spanish victims, suspects who are in Spain, or some other obvious link with Spain". Complaints were lodged against former Israeli Defense Forces chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. (res.) Dan Halutz and six other senior Israeli political and military officials by pro-Palestinian organizations, who sought to prosecute them in Spain under
11375-514: The language. Under his cover name he worked for a short time in Buenos Aires as a mechanic. He worked for a couple years at a waterworks in the province of Tucumán on the edge of the Rio Potrero. At work, he was known as an insignificant but respected and conscientious person. Eichmann moved in October 1953 to Olivos, Buenos Aires . Compared to other German immigrants, Eichmann's career
11500-410: The law of nations itself". It also asserted that the crime of genocide is covered under international customary law. As a supplemental form of jurisdiction, a further argument is made on the basis of protective jurisdiction. Protective jurisdiction is a principle that "provides that states may exercise jurisdiction over aliens who have committed an act abroad which is deemed prejudicial to the security of
11625-646: The mass murder began, he headed the offices of forced Jewish emigration in Vienna, Prague and Berlin. Immediately after the Allied occupations of Germany and Austria , Eichmann was arrested by US soldiers. He kept his full identity hidden and was seen by them as harmless. In 1946 he escaped from Allied custody, and remained hidden in Germany until 1950. Eichmann was very careful when he hid in Germany. He did not even visit his family before he fled to Argentina. Using
11750-603: The murder of 30 victims, who were thrown from planes to their deaths, and a further five years for torture and five years illegal detention. Scilingo is unlikely to serve more than 30 years in jail as that is the maximum time a person can serve for non-terrorist offences. The Spanish case was the first use of a new Spanish law whereby people can be prosecuted for crimes committed outside Spain. Scilingo's confession prompted Argentines residing in Spain to press charges against him. It also led to Chileans living in Spain to file charges against their former dictator, Augusto Pinochet , who
11875-467: The other hand, even at the time, the Nuremberg trials were criticized as victor's justice , revenge papered over with legal simulacra . US Supreme Court Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone remarked that his colleague Justice Jackson acting as Nuremberg Chief prosecutor was "conducting his high-grade lynching party in Nuremberg. I don't mind what he does to the Nazis, but I hate to see the pretense that he
12000-504: The particular state concerned". In November 2011, the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC), created in 2007 by former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad as a private institution (without the support of any government), exercised what it viewed as universal jurisdiction to try and convict in absentia former US President George W. Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair for
12125-411: The plan was to return the plane on 20 May – without the diplomats, but with Eichmann on board. With the approval of the government of Israel, he was nevertheless captured on May 11, 1960. When Eichmann got off the bus in the evening, the agents had been feigning a breakdown. One of them signaled to Eichmann with the only Spanish phrase they knew: un momentito, señor , 'one moment, sir'. Then
12250-484: The principle of aut dedere aut judicare , stating that German criminal law applies to offenses committed abroad by foreign nationals who currently reside in Germany if there is no criminal law jurisdiction in the foreign country or when no extradition request was made. The moral philosopher Peter Singer , along with Kenneth Roth, has cited Israel's prosecution of Adolf Eichmann in 1961 as an assertion of universal jurisdiction. He claims that while Israel did invoke
12375-711: The principle of universal jurisdiction. On 29 January 2009, Fernando Andreu , a judge of the Audiencia Nacional, opened preliminary investigations into claims that a targeted killing attack in Gaza in 2002 warranted the prosecution of Halutz, the former Israeli defence minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer , the former defence chief-of-staff Moshe Ya'alon , and four others, for crimes against humanity . Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly criticized
12500-683: The prosecution in Berlin in 1952, the case was put aside because Eichmann could not be found. When Vera Eichmann left Austria, the travel documents were issued by the Soviet occupying power. When in 1954 she applied for passports at the embassy in Buenos Aires for her two eldest sons, no one responded. In West Germany, an arrest warrant for Eichmann was issued in 1956 and the Bundeskriminalamt (the federal criminal police in Germany) refused to send
12625-483: The request of the Argentinian government, the Israeli government sent a diplomatic note ( note verbiale ) in which they regretted any violation of Argentine sovereignty and argued that Eichmann joined Israel of his own accord. David Ben Gurion apologized in a separate letter to Argentine President Arturo Frondizi. Argentina was thankful for the apology but believed that Eichmann had to be returned to Argentina and that
12750-401: The same cafe, and there was always an agent keeping watch from an apartment across the street from Eichmann's house. He was also regularly photographed. The agents were constantly replaced so that Eichmann would not become suspicious. The agents charted Eichmann's habits; where he worked, when he showed up, when he went home for the day, and which bus he took to and from work. Eichmann seemed like
12875-531: The sentence. In Israel's only judicial execution to date, Eichmann was hanged on 1 June 1962 at Ramla Prison . From 1933 to 1945, the Jews in Europe faced systematic persecution and genocide at the hands of the Nazis in Germany and their collaborators in the Holocaust . From 1941 to 1945, this persecution increased as part of the Final Solution , a plan to murder all of the Jews in Europe, which resulted in
13000-521: The story to an Israeli newspaper, which caused a sensation when the story was published, causing David Ben Gurion to prioritize the case. The newspaper report led to Friedman receiving many tips as to Eichmann's whereabouts. Towards the end of the decade, US and British intelligence no longer had the task of hunting down and prosecuting Nazis , having handed it over to the Germans. Eichman told his four sons not to talk about politics, but his eldest, Klaus, did not heed his father's word. In 1956, he became
13125-454: The trials at Nuremberg. In 1953, Simon Wiesenthal tracked down Eichmann from his residence in Vienna. In 1954, he got a postcard from a Buenos Aires collaborator which said the following: Imagine who I have seen here, twice already, and an acquaintance of mine even spoke to him. I saw that miserable pig Eichmann. He lives near Buenos Aires and works for a waterworks. At the same time, Mossad had tracked him down in addition to Josef Mengele ,
13250-572: Was a central figure in the execution of the Holocaust. Among the approximately 500 Nazis the group kept on a list of war criminals, Eichmann was high up. One of its members, Gideon Raphael, traveled to London after World War II with detailed information based on witness statements in Haifa to be used in the Nuremberg trials. Initially, the Allies knew little about Eichmann but eventually received information from survivors and emigrants. The search for Eichmann
13375-688: Was a rapid succession of cases: Confronted with this sharp increase in cases, Belgium established the condition that the accused person must be Belgian or present in Belgium. An arrest warrant issued in 2000 under this law, against the then Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Abdoulaye Yerodia Ndombasi , was challenged before the International Court of Justice in
13500-597: Was arrested and indicted for war crimes and torture, respectively. In May 2023, the French Court of Cassation ruled that French universal jurisdiction allows for a trial of said individuals, and that it was not obligatory that "the offences of crime against humanity or war crime be identically described by the laws of the foreign country", in this case Syria. On 15 November 2023, France issued international arrest warrants for Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and three other Syrian officials for war crimes perpetrated during
13625-503: Was arrested by American forces in May 1945 near Lake Altaussee in Styria , Austria. In front of American occupational authorities, Wisliceny argued that Eichmann was alive and that he was too cowardly to take his own life, as he is said to have talked about towards the end of the Second World War. Wisliceny himself outlined a plan to track down Eichmann, among other things he himself would be at
13750-561: Was charged with fifteen counts of violating the Nazis and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law . His trial began on 11 April 1961 and was presided over by three judges: Moshe Landau , Benjamin Halevy , and Yitzhak Raveh . Convicted on all fifteen counts, Eichmann was sentenced to death. He appealed to the Supreme Court , which confirmed the convictions and the sentence. President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi rejected Eichmann's request to commute
13875-510: Was confused by countless rumors and by the fact that an official named Ingo Eichmann also worked at the RHSA. After the war, it was speculated whether Eichmann, with his knowledge of the Hebrew language and Jewish life, had been pretending to be a surviving Jew from a camp, and had even emigrated to Palestine or Egypt . Dieter Wisliceny , an SS officer and one of Eichmann's closest associates,
14000-466: Was dressed in the uniform of the airline El Al (Israel's flag carrier) and drunk. One member of the flight crew remained in Buenos Aires so that the number of crew members would match. The Mossad agents gave the impression that Eichmann had been out drinking. After a layover in Dakar on the west coast of Africa, Eichmann arrived in Israel on May 22. The Israeli government initially denied involvement in
14125-468: Was instrumental in drafting the Nuremberg Laws in 1935. Der Spiegel discussed in 2011 whether the German intelligence failed in their search for Eichmann. The BND did not consider it its task to track down ex-Nazis. West German prosecutors only started investigating a case if a report had been submitted, which Eichmann and many former Nazis took advantage of. When a Holocaust survivor wrote to
14250-557: Was later arrested in Britain at the request of Judge Baltasar Garzón . On 4 July 2007, the Supreme Court of Spain increased Scilingo's prison sentence to 1084 years (but effective for only 25 years) and altered the conviction to the specific penalties provided in the current criminal code for the crimes of murder and unlawful detention, but held that these crimes "constitute crimes against humanity according to international law". Universal jurisdiction Universal jurisdiction
14375-558: Was loyal to him even though she knew about his many mistresses. When she bought a ticket to Buenos Aires, it strengthened their assumption that he was there, and three Israeli agents traveled on the same flight. Upon reaching Buenos Aires, she went straight to a house in San Fernando where she embraced him. It was only then that the agents were sure they had the right man. In the 1950s, several Holocaust survivors had devoted their lives to searching for those responsible who had escaped
14500-553: Was new. From these premises, representing the Enlightenment belief in trans-territorial, trans-cultural standards of right and wrong, derives universal jurisdiction. Perhaps the most notable and influential precedent for universal jurisdiction were the mid-20th century Nuremberg Trials . U.S. Justice Robert H. Jackson then chief prosecutor, famously stated that an International Military Tribunal enforcing universal principles of right and wrong could prosecute acts without
14625-483: Was not particularly outstanding. From 1953 to 1960, he held a series of different jobs that were barely sufficient to support himself and his family; at one time, he tried to set up a dry cleaner shop but failed, causing him to seek a job at the Orbis water heater factory instead. For a time he lived in the suburbs of La Plata , working as an Angora rabbit breeder. They lived modestly and had relatively little contact with
14750-473: Was on one level and had exceptionally thick walls and only a few windows. He found a better-paying job at Mercedes-Benz , where he started as a clerk and worked his way up to a management job. One of the agents who captured Eichmann later said that Mossad knew of Josef Mengele's whereabouts, but let him go because it could jeopardize Eichmann's arrest. Der Spiegel estimates that there were probably several hundred people in Buenos Aires who knew that Klement
14875-504: Was politicians and the judiciary, not German intelligence, that stood in the way of Eichmann's arrest in Argentina. The American authorities handed the case over to the West German authorities. When a German court issued an arrest warrant, the Bundeskriminalamt failed to call for Eichmann through Interpol . The German Federal Intelligence Service had agents in Argentina. German intelligence kept an eye on this environment with
15000-691: Was ready with the aim of transporting Eichmann to Israel. The action was fruitless because Eichmann was in fact in northern Germany. Der Spiegel found the information archival material by the Gehlen Organization . After the war, the Americans followed Eichmann's family in Altaussee and his parents in Linz. The hunt for Nazi-era criminals slowed as the Cold War intensified. In the early 1950s,
15125-570: Was really Eichmann. Vera Eichmann disappeared in the 1950s, but Israeli agents knew her passport had expired so she had to go to Vienna to get it renewed. Austrian authorities tipped off the agents when she appeared at the passport office in Vienna. She was then shadowed continuously. In 1959, Vera was back in Austria to renew her passport, from where Eichmann was tracked down by the Haganah. The Israeli agents were sure that she renewed her passport only so she could travel to where her husband was; she
15250-603: Was rejected by the German Federal Court of Justice , Germany's highest court of appeal for criminal matters, on 30 April 1999. The court stated that genocide is a crime which all nations must prosecute. Since then Germany has implemented the principle of universal jurisdiction for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes into its criminal law through the Völkerstrafgesetzbuch or VStGB ("international criminal code", literally "book of
15375-407: Was sentenced to 40 years in prison. Universal jurisdiction may be asserted by a particular nation as well as by an international tribunal. The result is the same: individuals become answerable for crimes defined and prosecuted regardless of where they live, or where the conduct occurred; crimes said to be so grievous as to be universally condemned. Amnesty International argues that since the end of
15500-570: Was sentenced to life imprisonment in Finland in 2010 for participation in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. In 2021 a trial for Gibril Massaquoi, charged with murder, aggravated war crimes and aggravated crimes against humanity in Liberia , started in Finland, with part of the hearings of witnesses to take place in Liberia and Sierra Leone . The article 689 of the code de procédure pénale states
15625-609: Was then West Germany or because it could potentially harm Western interests in the Cold War . The CIA also wanted no attention about Nazis that they themselves recruited after the Second World War. At the same time, Mossad had temporarily given up its search for Eichmann in Argentina, because they did not know his cover name. The US and the CIA did not have the policy of pursuing war criminals. The CIA also protected General Reinhard Gehlen , who recruited hundreds of former Nazis as CIA agents. The CIA compiled extensive documentation of
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