War crimes trials in Indochina
The war crimes trials in Indochina were carried out by the French colonial power against Japanese military personnel (as war criminals of categories B and C ) or their helpers for war crimes committed during the Japanese occupation of Indochina .
organization
“Free” France had been a member of the UNWCC and the Far Eastern Sub-Committee on War Crimes (FEAC, later FEC) in Chongqing since October 1943 . The FEC's categorization of Japanese war criminals was essentially followed. In the motherland, 40,000 collaborators and Nazi war criminals were tried in special courts. Nominally, a ( Vichy ) French colonial administration existed in Indochina until March 9, 1945 , which was considered an ally of the Japanese.
With the decree of August 28, 1944, which applied not only in France and Algeria, but also in the other colonies, the government of General Charles de Gaulle ( France libre ) established military war crimes tribunals . What exactly constitutes a war crime was not defined, this resulted from the Code pénal and the Code de Justice Militaire. The five (seven in peacetime) judges had to be members (not necessarily officers) of the French armed forces or the Resistance . The chairman could determine the provisions for the taking of evidence at will. Judgments were made by majority decision, in peacetime a majority of 5: 2 was necessary. In principle, the procedures were public, but exclusion was permitted for security reasons. The judgments were to be given reasons. French law allows condemnation in absentia. The participation of judges from other allied nations was - in contrast to British and American (with the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP)) practice - not intended, but cooperation with the prosecutors of the SEAC was carried out.
The charges (Acte d'Accusation) were presented by the prosecutor, who was usually a civil lawyer.
The defendants were given the option to be represented by a lawyer of their choice; if necessary, a public defender was appointed. The charges and a list of witnesses had to be made known to the accused before the start of the trial. In addition, the defendants had a "last word."
Appeal and Revision
Appeals against the judgments of the tribunals were permitted within 24 hours. The decisions were submitted to an appeal tribunal for review, the judgment of which was final.
Processes
Saigon was chosen as the place of the court . Crimes such as "waging a war of aggression" and "crimes against humanity" were not charged, but individual (mass) murder, rape, mistreatment of prisoners of war, etc.
Due to the developing civil war situation, documents on individual trials have hardly survived. At the end of December 1949, a number of the accused awaited their trial. Executions took place in March 1951.
As far as is known, 198 (86.1%) were convicted of 230 defendants in 39 trials. There were 63 death sentences , of which 26 were carried out. The convictions of 37 defendants were in absentia.
literature
- Philip R. Piccigallo: The Japanese on Trial. Allied was crimes operations in the East. 1945–1951. University of Texas Press, Austin TX et al. a. 1979, ISBN 0-292-78033-8 , (Chapter 12 "France")
- Sugimacho Fujio (Ed.): Saigon nio shisu: yon sempan shikeishi no isho. Tokyo 1972 ["Records held in prison of four people sentenced to death in Saigon," the editor was their lawyer.]