Facts
Jiang Zemin was born in 1926 in Yangzhou, China (PRC). In 1983, he became a member of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He continued his career within the party until he became Secretary General in 1989, until 2002. Jiang Zemin was the President of the PRC from 1993 to 2003. He also served as the President of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2004, which allowed him to become a highly influential figure in foreign policy and national security.
In the late 1980s, Jiang Zemin, as a member of the Central Committee of the CCP contributed to discussions dealing with uprisings in Tibet, and the decisions taken by the Chinese state to deal with this situation. On 8 March 1989, the martial law was declared by Hu Jintao and imposed to Tibetan people until 1990.
Jiang Zemin along with seven former high-ranked Chinese politicians are suspected of having committed or ordered the following crimes, committed in Tibet between 1971 and 1998:
- Genocide (including torture, forced abortions, sterilizations and displacement of Tibetan people, along with the murder of more than a million people from Tibet)
- Crimes against humanity (in particular religious persecutions, forced disappearances along with the murder of people from Tibet)
- Torture (14 charges, as well as the ill-treatment of political prisoners in Drachi and Gutsa, penal institutions in Lhasa, Tibet)
- Terrorism
Procedure
On 28 June 2005, the Tibetan Support Committee (Comité de Apoyo al Tibet), the Foundation House of Tibet (Casa del Tibet) and M. Thubten Wangchen, a Tibetan in exile, filed a criminal complaint against eight defendants (including Jiang Zemin, Deng Delyun, Chen Kuiyuan, Hu Jintao, Li Peng, Ren Rong, Yin Fatang and Qiao Shi) before the Spanish National Court (Audiencia Nacional) on the basis of the principle of universal jurisdiction for crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, torture and terrorism, committed against Tibetans in the late 1980s and 1990s.
On 30 July 2008, the charges were broadened to include new cases of torture and charges of genocide. On 30 March 2011, war crimes charges were also added to the case.
On 10 February 2014, Judge Ismael Moreno issued five international arrest warrants against former Chinese officials (Jiang Zemin, Li Peng, Qiao Shi, Chen Kuiyuan and Deng Delyun).
However, on 23 June 2014, the criminal chamber of the Spanish national Court dismissed the case. It considered that under the new law of universal jurisdiction, Spanish courts did not have jurisdiction to investigate and judge the crimes committed, as the defendants were not Spanish, nor ordinarily resident in Spain, nor foreigners whose extradition had been denied by the Spanish authorities.
On 18 September 2014 the Comité de Apoyo al Tíbet (CAT) and the co-plaintiffs – the Fundación Casa del Tíbet and Thubten Wangchen – lodged an appeal before the Spanish Supreme Court, based on the existence of terrorism charges (not concerned by the universal jurisdiction reform) and on the Spanish nationality of one of the victims of the alleged crimes.
Following the appeal lodged by the victims, the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court issued its judgment on 6 May 2015, upholding the resolution to close the Tibet Case due to the new procedural requirements introduced by the modification of the Judicial Power Act in 2014. In June 2015, the plaintiffs filed an appeal before the Constitutional Court. In February 2019, the Constitutional Court rejected the appeal.
Other procedure
Another complaint against Jiang Zemin and other high-ranking Chinese officials (Jia Qinglin, Luo Gan, Bo Xilai and Wu Guanzheng) was filed in 2003 for the crimes of genocide and torture committed against almost 80 millions Falun Gong (Falun Dafa) practitioners. The modification of the law constraining the application of universal jurisdiction in Spain led to the closing of the case. An appeal was launched on 30 July 2015 before the Constitutional Court. In 2019, the Constitutional Court rejected the appeal.
Highlight
This case is part of the eight first complaints filed against former Chinese politicians regarding the crimes committed in Tibet.