KING TO BE PROSECUTED: APRIL FOOL

This is the best April Fool’s prank I’ve seen today (1 April 2011). I so wanted it to be true

Swaziland King and Prime Minister to be prosecuted in the Haague

By Staff reporter

Swaziland’s King Mswati III and Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini are to be prosecuted at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Haague for crimes against humanity, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Chief Prosecutor at the ICC, told the world’s press at a press conference yesterday. If convicted, they could face life imprisonment.

Mswati and Dlamini are being charged with “gross human rights violations against Swaziland’s population and the systematic plundering of Swaziland’s assets, thereby being de facto responsible for, amongst other things, the mass fatalities that the Aids pandemic in Swaziland has brought about.”

The charges against them are the result of in-dept investigations against government malpractice, corruption and gross human rights violations in Swaziland. Amongst other things, representatives of the ICC have made several secret field trips to Swaziland to collect evidence to substantiate their case. Sources within the ICC today revealed that the EU office in Mbabane had been vital in connection with these fact-finding missions.

”The ICC has been requested to pursue this case by several human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, and we have the full support of prominent members of the international community, including the U.S. government. The timeliness of the case must also be seen in connection with the prospect of similar future cases against former heads of state in North Africa, and will therefore hopefully act as a precedent. I do not wish to go into when and how the two accused will be sought extradited, for obvious reasons,” Luis Moreno-Ocampo said, although he revealed that several of Swaziland’s neighbours had offered to assist the ICC in bringing the two men to justice.


SAPA/AFP