Issue 457: UN Rights Nominee Cracks Under Pressure, Confesses to Receiving Qaddafi Prize

UN Rights Nominee Cracks Under Pressure, Confesses to Receiving Qaddafi Prize
Swiss TV Broadcasts UN Watch Video Proving Jean Ziegler Flagrantly Lied for 11 Years
Ziegler now changes his story: “Yes, I did receive the Qaddafi Prize—but I immediately gave it back within 48 hours…”

Exposed: Contrary to UNHRC nominee Jean Ziegler’s claim—repeated over 11 years—that he never received the Qaddafi Prize, UN Watch today released this video proving that he did exactly that
GENEVA, September 23 –  After Swiss media widely covered UN Watch’s announcement three days ago that it would release video and other evidence today, to prove that UN Human Rights Council nominee Jean Ziegler flagrantly lied to the world about his ties to the Muammar Gaddafi Human Rights Prize, the former Socialist politician cracked under pressure—and completely changed the improbable story to which he has clung so zealously over the past 11 years.
Just last month, Ziegler again flatly denied in this audio interview that he received the Gaddafi Prize in 2002, or that he attended the ceremony.

In an extraordinary capitulation today, Ziegler, acting in anticipation of UN Watch’s video release, suddenly announced, in matter-of-fact fashion, that he did receive the prize and that he did attend the ceremony in Tripoli, Libya.
Ziegler’s new claim is that he duly returned the prize 48 hours after returning to Geneva. This account contradicts everything he has been saying for the past 11 years.
Given that Ziegler’s current credibility level would make Anthony Weiner, Lance Armstrong, and Pinocchio appear as paragons of honesty by comparison, the Swiss nominee for election to a top UN human rights post ought to be told: Oh, yeah? Prove it. Because all the evidence shows that in fact he never returned the prize.
Notably, while the new Libyan government recently honored a Spanish writer for turning down a Gaddafi prize, there has been no such recognition for Ziegler’s supposed prize return.
Interestingly, in two separate interviews in which Ziegler utterly denied any ties to or knowledge of the dictator’s prize, he casually mentioned the identical figure of $100,000, as a theoretical amount that such a prize might involve. It’s a fair guess that this Freudian slip is the actual amount that he received in 2002, and that this Libyan lucre was never returned.
Now that Ziegler has been exposed once again as an out-and-out liar, and after the Swiss parliament slammed his nomination, will the foreign ministry finally pull its support prior to Thursday’s election?
For the sake of truth, for the sake of the UN’s founding principles and reputation, let us hope that they do come to their senses.

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“A former United Nations human rights official admitted this week that he received the Qaddafi International Prize for Human Rights in 2002, after previously denying it in an August interview with the Washington Free Beacon. His reversal appears to have been prompted by a new video released by the human rights group U.N. Watch, which shows Ziegler on stage at the ceremony receiving the award…” More

Click here to watch Swiss TV coverage of
today’s UN Watch press conference exposing Jean Ziegler

“UN Watch a montré lundi à la presse des documents prouvant que le Jean Ziegler a reçu le prix Mouammar Kadhafi en septembre 2002 à Tripoli. Le directeur de l’organisation Hillel Neuer a affirmé que, sur la base de ces documents photographiques et vidéo, il n’y a pas de doute que le socialiste a été cofondateur du prix Kadhafi en avril 1989. Il a ensuite été à Genève vice-président de la Fondation Nord-Sud, appartenant à l’organisation Nord-Sud XXI, chargée de gérer le prix libyen doté de 250’000 dollars par an.”  More