Justice closes a preliminary investigation targeting clothing giants

Setback for human rights defenders. French justice has dismissed a preliminary investigation opened in June 2021 targeting clothing giants such as Uniqlo and Inditex, accused by associations of having profited from the forced labor of Uyghurs in China. The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat), which deals with crimes against humanity in France, confirmed on Thursday this classification which took place in April, AFP learned from a source familiar with the matter.

The investigation had been opened by the crimes against humanity unit of this prosecution after a complaint filed in April 2021 by the anti-corruption association Sherpa, the collective Ethics on the label, the Uyghur Institute of Europe (IODE) and a Uyghur who was interned in the province of Xinjiang (north-west China). The plaintiffs intend to file a new complaint so that a judge is appointed, indicated their lawyer Me William Bourdon, requested by AFP.

The Pnat incompetent for the offenses referred to

The complaint was based on a report published in March 2020 by the Australian NGO ASPI (Australian Strategic Policy Institute). The complainants accused Uniqlo France (owned by the Japanese group Fast Retailing), Inditex (which owns the brands Zara, Bershka, Massimo Duti), SMCP (Sandro, Maje, de Fursac, etc.) and the shoemaker Skechers of marketing products manufactured entirely or partly in factories where Uyghurs are subjected, according to these associations, to forced labor. The plaintiffs also considered that these companies did not justify sufficient efforts to ensure that their subcontractors were not implicated in the persecutions of this minority.

On April 12, the Pnat informed the complainants in a letter of which AFP learned that the investigation was closed “for reasons of absence of offense, due to the incompetence of the Pnat to prosecute the facts referred to in the complaint”. According to the first source close to the case, the public prosecutor considered that he could only prosecute the textile giants for concealment of offenses if he also had jurisdiction for the main offenses referred to, that is to say the crimes against humanity and genocide. According to another close source, the Pnat considers however that these crimes are likely to have been committed in China by Chinese companies, the suppliers of the textile giants denounced in the complaint, which would therefore make it incompetent.

“The head-to-tail of the Pnat is incomprehensible insofar as an investigation had been opened on the basis of concealment of crimes against humanity. Two years later, it is now considered an irrelevant qualification, “said Me Bourdon.

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