A Spanish court on Tuesday ordered that international arrest warrants be issued for ex-Chinese communist regime leader, Jiang Zemin and four other senior leaders in a case alleging crimes of genocide against Tibetans.

Also named were Li Peng, China’s premier during the repression in Tibet in the late 1980’s and early 1990s; Qiao Shi, state security chief during a period of martial law in Tibet in the late 1980s; Chen Kuiyuan, ruling Chinese Communist Party Secretary in Tibet from 1992-2001; and Deng Delyun, former head of family planning in the 1990s.

Spain’s National Court has also agreed to hear charges of genocide in Tibet against former Chinese leader Hu Jintao, who is a former Party Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region and presided over the imposition of martial law in 1989.

The action by Spain’s National Court was pursued under the doctrine of “universal jurisdiction,” raising the possibility that those named in the warrants could be taken into custody to face trial if they travel outside of China.

The Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) said in a statement: “None of the leaders named, and others too, are likely to take the risk of traveling outside the [People’s Republic of China] as they could be arrested for questioning on the crimes they are accused of,” ICT said, adding, “All the leaders face the possibility of bank accounts overseas being preventively frozen.”

This new development was described to the International Campaign for Tibet by legal experts in Spain as being potentially as significant as the arrest of Pinochet in London in 1998 after a group of Spanish lawyers put together a lawsuit against the Chilean dictator, who presided over a 17-year reign of terror and ordered foreign assassinations.

The Spanish legal system recognizes "universal jurisdiction", under which genocide or war-crimes suspects can be put on trial outside their home country, but requires that any case must directly involve Spain or a citizen or resident of Spain.

One of the plaintiffs, Tibetan exile Thubten Wangchen, has Spanish nationality.

The court heard testimony from former Tibetan political prisoners and international experts, and reviewed extensive documentation of abuses, including torture and extrajudicial killings, committed by Chinese security forces in Tibet.

Interesting read: The Real Story of Jiang Zemin