Gonzalo Boye

Gonzalo Boye
Nationality Chile/Spain
Occupation Lawyer

Gonzalo Boye (Viña del Mar, 1965) is a lawyer, based in Spain, notable for trying to use Spanish law to charge members of the George W. Bush administration officials for their roles in war crimes committed against citizens or residents of Spain while the US held them in extrajudicial detention.[1][2][3][4] Boye was born in Chile. In 1996 he was convicted to 14 years in prison for collaborating with Basque terrorist group ETA, after the Court considered proven that Boye played a key role in the kidnapping of the businessman Emiliano Revilla in 1988, that lasted for eight months. The victim was released after a millionaire ransom payment.

Many nations allow war crime charges to be laid against non-citizens, and non-residents, when the countries where they lived when the war crimes were committed has failed to initiate an effective inquiry.[1][3] Spain has a tradition of being more aggressive than other nations, famously trying to extradite Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet from Britain. In 2009 Boye tried to initiate extradition of six former officials from the Presidency of George W. Bush.

Andrew C. McCarthy, writing in the National Review asserted that Boye earned his law degree when he was in prison.[3]

Boye was one of four individuals profiled in the award-winning documentary The Guantanamo trap.[2] The movie challenges whether Boye was fairly convicted for the kidnapping. According to Deutsche Welle Boye was "a victim of police torture himself". However, evidence collected by the supreme court in Spain shows this to be completely false and Boye was fairly convicted and sentenced to 14 years imprisonment. After 6 years in prison he was set free.

References

  1. 1 2 Tracy Rucinski (2009-03-28). "Spain may decide Guantanamo probe this week". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2009-03-30. Retrieved 2009-03-29. One of the lawyers who filed the complaint which triggered the review told Reuters: 'It's not that we think the High Court might accept the complaint, they must accept it,' Gonzalo Boye said.
  2. 1 2 "Documentary holds up four-sided mirror to Guantanamo Bay". Deutsche Welle. 2011-08-29. Archived from the original on 2011-11-18. Retrieved 2011-11-18. In Spain, criminal prosecution lawyer Gonzalo Boye, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for assisting the kidnapping of spanish entrepreneurs Emiliano Revilla and also Diego de Prado y Lon de Carvajal.
  3. 1 2 3 Andrew C. McCarthy (2009-03-31). "Spain's Universal Jurisdiction Power Play". National Review. Archived from the original on 2011-11-19. Retrieved 2011-11-19. Unmentioned is how Boye came to be a Madrid lawyer. He obtained his law degree in a Spanish prison. According to reports in the Spanish press (read here), Boye, a Chilean, was a member of the terrorist Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) when, in collusion with the ETA, Spain’s Marxist-Leninist Basque terrorist outfit, he participated in the abduction of a Spanish businessman, Emiliano Revilla.
  4. ↑ "FUE CONDENADO POR COLABORAR CON ETA: Gonzalo Boyé está detrás de la querella contra el ex ministro de Defensa israelí" [He was convicted of collaborating with ETA: Gonzalo Boye behind the lawsuit against former Israeli Defense Minister]. Libertad Digital Internacional. 2009-01-30. Archived from the original on 2011-11-19. Retrieved 2011-11-19.


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