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During his presidential mandate in the United States, George W. Bush authorized the CIA, in a directive dated September 17, 2001, to abduct suspected terrorists and hold them in secret detention centers, mainly in Guantanamo Bay, but also in Afghanistan, Thailand, Poland and Rumania. At these centers, Mr Bush authorized the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques”,...

Bouguerra Soltani held several ministerial positions in the Algerian government from 1998 to 2009. He is suspected of having ordered, authorized and incited public officials to commit acts of torture. When Mr Soltani was invited to come to Switzerland as a speaker in October 2009, TRIAL International filed a criminal report against him, immediately followed by a c...

According to human rights organizations, the Bahraini authorities systematically use torture, and the Bahraini Attorney General’s Office plays a significant role in this repressive system. Those arrested are often subjected to torture and forced to sign false confessions. The annual conference of the International Association of Prosecutors (AIP) was held in Zurich...

Berlin/London/Geneva, 15 September 2015 – Electric shocks, beatings on the soles of the feet, stress positions during incommunicado detention: those who allow this type of torture can and must be held criminally liable – even abroad. Bahrain-born British citizen Jaafar Al-Hasabi has submitted a criminal complaint to the prosecuting authorities in Berne (Switzerland) a...

TRIAL (Swiss Association against Impunity) welcomes the arrest of Nepalese Colonel Kumar Lama in the United Kingdom on suspicion of torture. Following the condemnation of the arrest by senior figures in the Nepalese government, the organisation calls on Nepal to show solidarity with victims of the conflict and fully cooperate with the UK investigation of Col. Lama....

Geneva, 31 July  2012 - The Federal Criminal Court (FCC) released today a landmark decision in the case of Khaled Nezzar, an Algerian former defence Minister denounced by TRIAL for war crimes. The FCC found that Mr. Nezzar cannot claim immunity for acts committed during his tenure, thus paving the way for a trial in Switzerland. The present decision opens up significa...

Following various assertions published in the media in connection with the Khaled Nezzar case, TRIAL wishes to clarify the following: 1. TRIAL (Swiss association against impunity) is an independent, apolitical and non-confessional organisation and has consultative status before the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The main objective of TRIAL is to put th...

In 2008-2009, Mr Dias was the Major General of the 57th Division of the Sri Lankan army, tasked with attacking the Tamil Tigers during the final offensive against the rebel group. In this respect, he is alleged to have committed serious violations of the law of war. It is alleged that, from December 2008 to January 2009, the town of Kilinochchi was relentlessly shell...

Bern/Geneva/Berlin, 13.09.2011 According to media reports today, Jagath Dias, a former Sri Lankan General suspected of having committed war crimes, was stripped of his diplomatic status. The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), TRIAL (Swiss association against impunity) and ECCHR (European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights) welcome this decision. However,...