Sunday, November 15, 2015

Military jurisdiction in Guinea-Bissau

Rear Admiral José Zamora Induta
Given the voracious appetite some military justice systems display for expanded jurisdiction, consider this excerpt from a story from Guinea-Bissau:
Guinea-Bissau's highest court has ordered the release of a former armed forces chief detained for more than three months over suspected involvement in a failed 2012 coup attempt. 
José Zamora Induta, a rear-admiral who was ousted as military chief of staff in 2010, was placed under house arrest after returning from exile in Portugal in July and transferred to an army barracks in September. 
The Supreme Court ruled late on Wednesday however that the military tribunal which ordered his arrest had no jurisdiction "because the crime for which Zamora must answer is not a crime of a military nature". 
"My client is ready to face justice to clarify the charges hanging over his head, but not before a military court that has no legitimacy to judge such cases," his lawyer José Paulo Semedo told [Agence France Presse] on Thursday.

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