 International Criminal Tribunal for Iraq (ICTI) convicts Bush and Koizumi The International Criminal Tribunal for Iraq (ICTI) closed in Tokyo on March 5 after deciding that U.S. President George W. Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro are guilty of committing war crimes. The prosecutors read the summary of the indictment, followed by supplementary opinions. Judge Shin Hae Bong (Acting Chief Justice), professor at Aoyama Gakuin University, along with others accused the U.S. president of committing crimes that include airstrikes against Iraq, the occupation of Iraq, and attacks on Fallujah as crimes of aggression, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and a crime of genocide. The on-going deployment of multinational forces in Iraq is tantamount to further committing a crime of aggression by the U.S. president "even at this moment," the judge stated. The tribunal also found Prime Minister Koizumi, who gave unconditional support for the attack, as guilty of being an accomplice of U.S. President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair in the crime of aggression. The Tokyo trial started in 2003 and published the text of the judgment last December. Through five trials and local public hearings, it called for an end to the Iraq War and occupation, and opposition to the Self-Defense Forces' dispatch to Iraq. (end) |