US Extradition Pact Turned Down by Swiss

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, August 14, 2002

US Extradition Pact Turned Down by Swiss

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Switzerland will not sign a deal with the United States concerning protecting Americans from extradition to the newly-created International Criminal Court (ICC), Swiss Radio International (SRI) reported Tuesday.

The Swiss Foreign Ministry said the ICC would be undermined if Bern agreed not to send US citizens to the Court in The Hague.

SRI reported that Bern decided to follow fellow neutral nation, Norway, and reject attempts to exempt US citizens from prosecution abroad for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

Announcing its decision on Tuesday, Switzerland said it remained a strong supporter of the ICC.

Swiss Foreign Minister Joseph Deiss criticized the Bush administration for refusing to ratify the treaty for the Court.

"We think it is very important that the ICC is effective and therefore there should be no exceptions," SRI quoted Deiss as saying.

The Swiss position echoes that of many of its European neighbors, including France and Germany.

Washington last week began building a coalition of states that would protect Americans, in particular its armed forces serving abroad, from international prosecution.

Israel and Romania have already signed up to the US non-extradition pact.

Switzerland was not pressured by Washington to get on-board its on-extradition pact, Deiss stressed.

"From the beginning we have been in very close contact with the US authorities. They participated in the conception of the Rome Statute of the ICC. So I think that it's a very open discussion with different opinions but there is no pressure from one side to the other."

The ICC is the first permanent body for the prosecution of war crimes and will take on cases when the individual countries concerned are either unable or unwilling to bring prosecutions themselves.

The legal framework for the Court was drawn up at a special United Nations conference in Rome in 1998, when 139 nations signed the statute for the ICC.

The Court is expected to begin work in January 2003 and will have its permanent seat in the Hague in the Netherlands.

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