par Lagrou, Pieter 
Référence Dealing with Wars and Dictatorships: Legal Concepts and Categories in Action, T.M.C. Asser Press, page (123-144)
Publication Publié, 2014-01
Référence Dealing with Wars and Dictatorships: Legal Concepts and Categories in Action, T.M.C. Asser Press, page (123-144)
Publication Publié, 2014-01
Partie d'ouvrage collectif
| Résumé : | The Versailles Treaty and the dismissal of Belgian charges by the Leipzig tribunal had prevented the Belgian authorities from bringing German war criminals to justice after 1918. After 1945, one could thus expect that the issue figured high on the political agenda. Belgium obtained the extradition of 523 German suspects from the allied, mainly British, occupation authorities, but it managed to bring only 103 of them to trial. Two were sentenced to death and executed. Due to reduced sentences, early liberations, and pardon not a single German convict remained in Belgian prisons in 1956. The trials of German nationals were considered less urgent and vital than the purge of national collaborationists. The Belgian judiciary tried to turn the judgment of German war criminals into a showpiece of legal procedure, avoiding having recourse to retroactive qualifications as introduced in Nuremberg. Suspects were entitled to integral rights of defense, calling upon German defense attorneys; and they could appeal to the verdict and even defer their case to the Supreme Court. The mobilization of strong German support networks in effect internationalized Belgian jurisprudence, by forcing the courts to incorporate references to verdicts by other allied courts. By establishing unassailable jurisprudence, the Belgian war crime trials were future-oriented rather than backward-looking, trying to establish legal precedent rather than remedy the wrongs of the past. |
