Word: absentia
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...apparently achieved martyrdom, since the extremist Islamic Jihad, or Holy War, issued a statement claiming responsibility for the bombing and saying he was one of the members who carried it out. Police had Rashed on top of their most-wanted list, and he was already on trial in absentia, charged with murder and membership in an illegal group responsible for the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat. Rashed, noted police, had been trained in the use of explosives when he fought with the fundamentalist mujahedin against the communist regime in Afghanistan. According to an Interior Ministry statement, the second assailant...
Toto Riina, whose underlings dubbed him "the Short One" and whose enemies called him "the Beast," had been on the run for 23 years. Suspected of ordering at least 150 killings, he was convicted in absentia in 1987 of murder and drug trafficking and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Some sources suggested he had undergone plastic surgery to change his appearance, but apart from grayer hair and a more pronounced paunch, the man captured last week bore an unmistakable likeness to an FBI computer-generated drawing based on the last known photograph of Riina, from...
...take action, if the accused cannot be delivered to an international tribunal, would be to try them in absentia. Those found guilty would risk arrest if they ever went abroad. Even without a formal trial, the accused will have to think twice about leaving home. The crimes are of "universal jurisdiction," which means that every country is entitled to prosecute offenders found within its borders. And there is no statute of limitations on these crimes...
...extradited to Colombia and not the U.S., he was simply doing his duty as President, supporting an extradition order issued by a Colombian judge." Back in Cali, Rodriguez was tried on charges identical to those filed in the U.S. and was acquitted -- along with Santacruz, who was tried in absentia. The acquittal protected both men from further extradition to the U.S. on grounds of double jeopardy...
Whatever the legalities, unless the Baghdad regime is overthrown, it is unlikely that Saddam and his top henchmen will be placed in the dock. Some jurists suggest they should be tried anyway, in absentia. But even without that dramatic event, the meticulous documenting of atrocities and the punishment of Iraqis who carried out their superiors' most unconscionable orders would serve a deterrent purpose and underscore the justice of the allied cause. "The idea of a trial would be to show the Arabs that Saddam Hussein is not the great savior," says Howard Levie, professor emeritus of law at St. Louis...