Historic suit against Chinese officials

Since 2006, Spain’s High Court in Madrid has been review­ing a law­suit filed on behalf of Tibetans against for­mer Chinese offi­cials for alleged geno­cide, tor­ture, crimes against human­ity and ter­ror­ism. This his­toric law­suit, brought by Tibetan sup­port groups, is the first case seek­ing to define the Chinese State’s treat­ment of the Tibetan peo­ple. Those charged include for­mer PRC pres­i­dent Jiang Zemin, and for­mer Prime Minister, Li Peng. In August this year, the court, which suc­cess­fully pros­e­cuted Chilean dic­ta­tor Augusto Pinochet, said it would inves­ti­gate five more high-​​ranking Chinese offi­cials over accu­sa­tions that they over­saw wide­spread killing and tor­ture to sup­press this year’s protests in Tibet. Pema Dhondup speaks with Alan Cantos, Director of the Comité de Apoyo al Tibet, the Madrid-​​based NGO that has been pre­sent­ing the case, by phone from his home in Madrid.