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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Dec. 18, 1997
issue of Workers World newspaper
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Mumia Tribunal: The charges

The following are excerpts from the indictment presented at the Tribunal.

THE PEOPLES OF THE WORLD,
On Behalf of MUMIA ABU-JAMAL and Other Victims
of Human Rights Violations Perpetrated by the Defendants
Complainants

-against-

THOMAS RIDGE, Governor of Pennsylvania; RONALD CASTILLE, Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania; THE SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA; PENNSYLVANIA DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS; EDWARD RENDELL, Mayor of Philadelphia; FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE; POLICE DEPT. OF PHILADELPHIA; ALBERT SABO, Judge of Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas; LYNN ABRAHAM, Philadelphia District Attorney; FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION; JANET RENO, United States Attorney General

Defendants

INDICTMENT FOR GROSS VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Jurisdiction is conferred on this Tribunal pursuant to accepted principles of International Law approved and adopted by the world community under the United Nations Charter in accordance with such precedents as the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals

This Tribunal does not sit as a court of law but, like the Bertrand Russell Tribunals on the United States war against the Vietnamese people, it applies principles of customary international humanitarian law.

The Defendants together with others, notably former Mayor Frank Rizzo, established a gross and well-attested pattern and practice of racist brutality, oppression and intimidation [in which] law enforcement officials were encouraged and permitted to believe they could with impunity commit acts of extrajudicial execution, torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment, and other violations of international humanitarian law and domestic constitutions and statutes.

Defendants violated the rights of Mumia Abu-Jamal and all members, supporters and sympathizers of the Black Panther Party by participating in COINTELPRO and other criminal conspiracies.

Defendants violated the rights of Mumia Abu-Jamal and all members, supporters and sympathizers of the MOVE organization by orchestrating and condoning acts of mass murder, arson, false arrest, malicious prosecution, intimidation and harassment, including the May 1985 bombing which killed five children and six adults and incinerated more than 60 homes.

Defendants knowingly and intentionally operate a criminal system in which the death penalty is disproportionately imposed on and carried out against African Americans. People of color are routinely denied their rights. The death penalty, especially in the racist and discriminatory fashion in which it is implemented in the United States, constitutes torture, cruel and inhuman treatment and punishment. In their avowed determination to execute Mumia Abu-Jamal, defendants are guilty of conspiracy to murder.

Defendants are guilty of encouraging and permitting the Philadelphia Police Department to operate a corrupt and criminal conspiracy to violate the human rights of in particular Philadelphians of color.

Defendants are guilty of operating a system of incarceration that violates international and domestic prohibitions against torture.

Defendants committed numerous acts designed to deprive Mumia Abu-Jamal of his rights. Defendants fabricated evidence of an alleged confession; falsified ballistic evidence; procured false testimony from witnesses; concealed exculpatory evidence; excluded qualified African American jurors; banished Mumia Abu-Jamal from the courtroom; denied him the right to confront his accusers; denied him the means to investigate the evidence; effectively deprived him of the right to testify in his own defense; created a trial atmosphere in which his right to be presumed innocent was replaced by an overwhelming presumption of guilt; conducted a sentencing hearing in which political prejudice and racist bias dominated; used his political associations and statements to procure the death penalty against him.

Defendants are guilty of conspiring to deprive Mumia Abu-Jamal of his life, livelihood, liberty and human rights.

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