US has tools to prosecute Sri Lanka dual citizens for torture, crimes: DOJ official

இரட்டை  குடியுரிமை கொண்டு குற்றங்கள் புரிந்தவர்களை தண்டிக்க முடியும் - அமெரிக்க நாட்டு சட்ட அமைச்சு 

The United States has tools to prosecute Sri Lanka defence officials who are dual citizens for crimes including torture, a Department of Justice official told a congressional hearing aimed tightening laws to prosecute those engaging in mass atrocities and war crimes. "Jurisdiction Congress has given us allows to prosecute U.S. citizens who have committed acts of torture abroad," David Rybicki, deputy assistant attorney general, criminal division, Department of Justice (DOJ) told Representative Jim McGovern, who was chairing a House Tom Lantos Commission for Human Rights hearing.
And the Department used that statute to prosecute Chuckie Taylor, son of the former Liberian dictator who received a 97-year sentence."

Citizens and Residents
He was responding to McGovern who asked what measures "the DOJ and DHS (Department of Homeland Security) take, to hold perpetrators accountable when he/she is a U.S. citizen and green card holder?"
McGovern said former Sri Lanka Defence Secretary Gothabhaya Rajapaksa was a US citizen and former army chief Sarath Fonseka was a green card holder. 
 

Rybicki said there were “substantive human rights statutes, immigration, naturalisation law for non-U.S. citizens … or special tools Congress has given us to look at extraterritorial conduct." Beth Van Schaack, a professor at Stanford University said there were gaps in some of the US law, which needed to be closed to perpetrators of crimes resident in the US to justice. "This is a great case to activate our War Crimes Act as he (Rajapaksa) is a U.S. national and he falls within that jurisdiction," she said. "And would be a great case if we had a command responsibility or superior responsibility statute." Van Schaack suggested about 10 changes to bring to justice those committing mass atrocities and abuses, who then come to the US.

Murdered Journalist
Also giving testimony was Dixon Osburn, executive director of the Centre for Justice and Accountability (CJA) that represents Ahimsa Wickrematunge, daughter of slain Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunge, in her civil case against Rajapaksa.   Osburn, whose organization was also working on a case where 600 people were massacred in Liberia inside a Church, said the murder was emblematic of the killings during Sri Lanka's civil war, where had been murdered in broad daylight by persons who came in motorcycles wearing black. "We think there is sufficient evidence to show that he is responsible for that."

In addition to Sri Lanka, McGovern also highlighted El Salvador, where the military leaders of had engaged in a massacre of over a thousand people, but those at higher echelons had been given residence in the US.
He said the US had greater responsibility to prosecute when atrocities were committed by regimes that had American support. Van Schaack said in the case of war crimes it was easy to prosecute a dual citizen or resident when the victim was a US citizen, but not otherwise, and the law needed to be revised to be in line with other statues such as torture. Witnesses said sometimes perpetrators were prosecuted under immigration violations or deported or extradited. Van Schaack said statute of limitations be extended in the case of great crimes, and extraditions could be a sham unless there was genuine political will to prosecute. 

https://economynext.com/US_has_tools_to_prosecute_Sri_Lanka_dual_citizens_for_torture,_crimes__DOJ_official-3-14895.html