By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Appeal SG Response
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN
UN GATE, Nov 7 – How corrupt and unaccountable is today's United Nations?
Well, while the UN claims to be against sexual harassment and for accountability and press freedom, under Secretary General Antonio Guterres it ordered banned Inner City Press which reported on an ostensibly public UN Dispute Tribunal proceeding about harassment to destroy the evidence or be banned, a second time, from all proceedings, even virtual.
Then when Inner City Press appealed to the UN Appeal Tribunal, the time to decide was extended, a proceeding held in secret and a one line denial issued:
"2020-1502 Matthew Russell Lee against Secretary-General of the United Nations Appeal not receivable and dismissed."
No reasoning was given, no opportunity to be heard. Inner City Press will be asking for the reasoning, first from Guterres and his spokespeople Stephane Dujarric, Farhan Haq, Eri Kaneko, Stephanie Tremblay and Florencia Soto Nino, then if necessary from the Appeals Tribunal judges themselves.
Inner City Press was ordered to destroy evidence of who-done-it, even the UNDT has found Padula guilty - but has insisted that he be anonymized, that is, covered up for. The shameful order is here, and recites for example that the person - Padula - covered up for
.“grabbed [AA’s] face, held her closely, leaned forward and attempted to kiss her”; b. “when [AA] resisted [the Applicant] kissing her, [he] forced [AA’s] head down and kissed her on the forehead”; c. “grabbed [BB’s] face, held her closely, leaned forward and attempted to kiss her”; d. “tried to move physically close to [AA] and [BB] while dancing, despite their attempts to keep [him] at a distance”; e. “attempted to grab [CC’s] face; when she blocked her face with her hands, [the Applicant] grabbed her hands and tried to pull them apart; when she resisted, [he] fell on her forcefully”; and f. “took and pulled [CC’s] hands to try to get her to dance, despite her resistance”.
But in Guterres' UN they do not want the public to know who did this - and the Press which exclusively published and name and evidence is banned and its written questions not answered. On the morning of February 4, 12 hours before publishing this when no answer was received from Guterres, Dujarric, Fleming, Amina J. Mohammed et al., Inner City Press in writing asked this: "what are SG Guterres comments and more importantly action on the UN Dispute Tribunal on Feb 3 confirming sexual charges against Padula - while having told Inner City Press to destroy all evidence or remain bannned, and maintaining Padula's name sealed, confirming the cover-up culture under Guterres?"
The UN claims it has to protect the identity of Padula (and will NOT report him to NYPD for any criminal offense) because they have to protect the identity of the VICTIMS - it's like Guterres' rationale for covering up genocide and mass killing, for example in Cameroon.
Inner City Press is even banned from submitting questions by WebEx, on which the International Monetary Fund for example answers its questions, as it did on February 4 about the Burma coup, on on November 4, 2021 about Ethiopia. The only difference is Guterres and his corruption.
On December 21 Inner City Press filed a formal appeal with the UN Appeals Tribunal, full filing here on DocumentCloud.
In late January 2021 Guterres' long time Portuguese lawyer Miguel de Serpa Soares responded, that Guterers is not waiving immunity, impunity response on Document Cloud here. Impunity.
On the morning of January 26 Inner City Press emailed Guterres and his spokespeople this question: " Given that the UNDT order destruction of evidence concerning sexual harassment inside the UN, why is SG Guterres not waiving immunity?" No answer, still.
Then this: "2020-1502 Matthew Russell Lee against Secretary-General of the United Nations Appeal not receivable and dismissed."
Inner City Press' timely appeal was "deferred" from Guterres' kangaroo Appeals Tribunal, until October 2021, while his Melissa Fleming refuses to answer even a major US law firm - this is impunity, see below.
This UN report complained, "15. During the reporting period, the holding of public hearings remotely raised its own set of difficulties. The registries experienced difficulties in controlling the access to the virtual public gallery, which is not problematic in the physical courtroom. It is also more difficult to control whether the public abide by the Tribunal’s instructions, in particular the prohibition of recording the hearing." No, UN staff disgusted with Guterres' cover ups leak.
The deferral: "The June 2021 Synopsis file of UNAT judgments was published. They heard only 32 appeals, and the last appeal number heard in the session was 1468. So Inner City Press' appeal number 1502 won't be considered at a minimum until the late October 2021 session. The current estimated time from submitting an appeal to being considered is almost one year. Speedy justice? The Guterres Administration knows and exploits this. A typical UNDT case takes at least 18 months and then the appeals process takes at least a year. Hence why the Administration appeal every successful UNDT judgement by a staff member, it costs them nothing, while it costs the staff member plenty, as well as delaying any justice they may end up getting, which is usually little. Guterres' UN is corrupt - and cannot be allowed to continue banning the Press which reported on it.
