BNP Paribas suspected of complicity in war crimes: Sudanese testify
REUTERS/Charles Platiau
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
The BNP Paribas group is suspected of complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan.
This week, victims of abuses by the regime of former President Omar el-Bashir were heard by French justice.
A judicial investigation was opened in Paris two years ago, after a complaint from nine Sudanese;
Complaint supported by FIDH and LDH.
For three days, these victims told their stories and the persecutions they suffered during the war in Darfur.
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They are four to have been heard this week by magistrates of the Paris court.
Among them: Omar, in his forties, originally from Darfur.
This activist says he was threatened, harassed and arrested nearly ten times.
I was arrested and tortured by the Sudanese intelligence and security services.
They targeted me because of my work, I was helping people in Darfur who are suffering at the hands of this service.
After this last arrest in 2009, I felt that I was no longer safe in my country;
and i left
At the time, BNP Paribas was doing business with the Sudanese regime, while it was under embargo.
For Me Clémence Bectarte, who obtained the opening of the investigation by serving as a central bank for the Sudanese regime, the French group was complicit in the crimes committed.
The Sudanese authorities, normally, would not have been able to access the market in dollars, sell oil on the international market, obtain weapons, have cash to buy weapons… So it is important today to ask this question- that is the responsibility of companies
Omar now lives in exile.
He hopes that this investigation will succeed, that it will serve as an example for all these multinationals and banks that support dictatorships.
FIDH and LDH underline that for the first time, a bank could be held criminally responsible.
In 2014, BNP Paribas pleaded guilty in the United States to violating US embargoes against Sudan, Cuba and Iran, and paid a record $8.9 billion fine.
►Also read: BNP Paribas under investigation for complicity in crimes against humanity in Sudan
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