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Spain’s
state prosecutor charged the leader of Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko
Haram, Abubakar Shekau, with terrorism and crimes against humanity over a 2013
attack on a Nigerian town in which a Spanish nun was assaulted, court papers
said.
Spain has
pioneered the use of universal jurisdiction, the concept that crimes against
humanity can be prosecuted across borders, in instances such as when a Spanish
judge issued an arrest warrant for Chile’s Augusto Pinochet in London in 1998.
The Boko
Haram case arises from a militant attack on the eastern Nigerian town of Ganye
on March 22, 2013 in which at least 25 people were killed.
Court
papers issued on Thursday said militants assaulted the nun, Maria Jesus Mayor,
in Ganye before she was able to escape into hiding and was later rescued by
Nigerian security services.
The court
documents gave no details of the alleged incident involving the nun. The judge
has asked for a study of Boko Haram from Interpol and will obtain a declaration
from Mayor about the incident, according to the court papers.
For Spain
to carry out universal jurisdiction, there must be a Spanish connection such as
a Spanish victim or perpetrator. In the Boko Haram case, the state prosecutor
used the fact there was a Spanish victim to bring a generic charge of crimes
against humanity and terrorism, a court source said.
“This
criminal act was committed against a background of terrorist activities that
the jihadist organisation (Boko Haram) is carrying out systematically against
people and communities,” the court document said as it listed deadly attacks
carried out by Boko Haram in Africa’s most populous state since 2009.
Spain’s
centre-right government in recent years has sought to limit the power of judges
since arrest orders were causing diplomatic friction, for example last year
when a judge went after former Chinese officials accused of genocide in Tibet.
As a
result, the universal jurisdiction law was changed last year so that judges
could investigate such cases only if there was a Spanish connection.
Source: PmNews
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