An application for a warrant to arrest and extradite the Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, on torture charges was rejected by a British court on Wednesday.
The human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said he had hoped to bring President Mugabe to justice through the British courts under international human rights laws because his repressive regime protected him from prosecution at home.
Tatchell had cited the example of the former Chilean dictator, General Augusto Pinochet, who was arrested when he visited Britain for an operation in 1998.
But District Judge Timothy Workman, sitting at Bow Street magistrates court in London, said he could not issue a warrant because the president had absolute immunity to prosecution as a head of state.
”Whilst international law evolves over a period of time, international customary law, which is embodied in our Common Law, provides absolute immunity to any head of state,” he said. ”I am satisfied that Robert Mugabe is president and head of state of Zimbabwe and is entitled whilst he is head of state to that immunity.”
Had the warrant been granted, the Zimbabwean leader could have been extradited to Britain from more than 100 countries.
Tatchell, who has tried to carry out a citizen’s arrest on the president, said the judgement denied justice to thousands of Zimbabweans and allowed heads of state to torture with impunity.
”What is the point of having laws against torture if the main abusers, heads of state, are exempt from prosecution?” he asked. – Guardian Unlimited Â