Subject: Portuguese lawyers demand Suharto
extradition
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1998 12:10:05 -0500
From: Charles Scheiner <cscheiner@igc.org>Portuguese lawyers seek Suharto
extradition for Timor genocide
LISBON, Dec 26 (AFP) - Portuguese lawyers said Saturday they would seek the extradition
of Indonesia's ex-president Suharto for his alleged role in the genocide of a third of the
population of the former Portuguese colony of East Timor which Indonesia seized in 1975.
The Portuguese section of the International Jurists' Commission (CIJ) in Geneva said it
would file suit against Suharto, deposed last May, in a bid to seek his extradition to
Portugal.
The suit will be filed with Portugal's Attorney-General in January, charging Suharto
with responsibility in "crimes of genocide, the deaths of 200,000 civilians, torture
and summary executions" committed in East Timor after Jakarta annexed it in December
1975.
"It would be strange, after 10 countries presented (extradition requests) for
(former Chilean dictator) Augusto Pinochet for similar reasons, for Portugal not to do the
same in connection with Suharto," said Antonio Maria Pereira, a lawyer and president
of Law and Justice, the Portuguese section of the CIJ.
A month ago, Portugal's Attorney-General refused to grant an international arrest
warrant against Suharto, requested by a right-wing nationalist deputy, arguing that the
charges against Suharto did not fall under the jurisdiction of Portuguese law.
However, according to Pereira, Suharto's extradition to Portugal would be easier than
Pinochet's to Spain, because the crimes Suharto is accused of were committed on territory
still recognised by the United Nations and international law as being Portuguese.
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