letter to the Xoni newspaper

Sarah Luzia Hassel-Reusing

Thorner Str. 7

42283 Wuppertal (Germany)

+49 / 202 / 2502621

human rights acitivist

to the

Xoni Newspaper

I. Metaxa 33

19902 Palania, Attika (Greece)

subject: clarification regarding the article on my charge at the ICC

04.09.2014

Dear ladies and gentlemen,

I want to express my respect and my thankfulness for your recent courageous article of the 24.08.2014 on my charge (file number OTP-CR 345/12) against unknown at the ICC for suspected crime against humanity (art. 7 par. 1 lit. k Roman Statute). The attention of the media to the injustice and to the actions to seek justice are crucial.

Nevertheless, I have to make some clarifications, which I herewith request you to publish.

I cannot see any basis for a statement, that the examination of my charge was reaching its final phase. We have recently published a video calling for testimonies of people, whose health has been damaged because of the austerity measures.

http://unser-politikblog.blogspot.de/2014/08/videoaufruf-an-die-griechische.html

We have learned by media articles regarding the charges of other people to the ICC, that one usually needs enough concrete cases in order to reach, that the ICC starts a formal investigation. It seems unlogical to us, how there can be a final phase of the examinations, if we obviously are trying to get enough testimonies to reach a formal investigation.

I cannot remember, that I had ever said, that the austerity measures as such must stop. My legal point of view is instead, that the austerity measures may never large-scale or systematically damage the health of human beings, both from the perspective of universal criminal law (art. 7 par. 1 par. 1 lit. k Roman Statute) and from the universal human rights perspective (art. 12 UN Social Pact, no. 32 of general comment no. 14 to the UN Social Pact). Besides that, because of the indivisibility of the human rights, which comes from the human dignity, there must be a fair compromise between the human rights of the population and the human rights of the creditors of Greece. So I am not against austerity measures as such, but for proportionality, and for the protection of vulnerable groups of the population in particular.

And I have consciously made my charge against unknown, because there are many suspects from different countries and organizations. That means, that I am determined to go against unknown. So I do not see any sense in narrowing the perspective against the German government or even to make any statement in that direction, like it seems to be reported about me below the picture of me (standing in front of the Palais Wilson at Geneva) in your article. It needs to be found out, which measures, conditions, respectively mechanisms are responsible for the large-scale and systematical damaging of the health of the Greek population, and which groups of people are responsible for that.

Yours sincerely,

Sarah Luzia Hassel-Reusing