LAW Joins Torture Case against Rumsfeld in Germany

   Submitted by Siriel Admin on 2004 Dec 15 - 5:00am 

   [Themes:  | Germany | Canada & Quebec | Iraq | USA | ::Justice & Human Rights:: ]

LAW Joins Torture Case against Rumsfeld in Germany (December 15 2004)

Lawyers Against War has joined a criminal complaint filed in late November by the Center for Constitutional Rights in Germany against high-ranking U.S. officials.

The indictment charges Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and eleven others with war crimes and crimes against humanity contrary to Germany’s Criminal Code of Crimes against International Law (CCAIL) and the United Nations Convention Against Torture, for the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

The CCAIL creates universal jurisdiction to prosecute suspected war criminals irrespective of their nationality or where they are located.  The consent of the German Federal Prosecutor is required to open an investigation.

When he filed the charges in Berlin, Center for Constitutional Rights President Michael Ratnersaid:
“The existence of ‘torture memos’ drafted by administration officials and the authorization of techniques that violated humanitarian law by Secretary Rumsfeld, Lt. General Sanchez and others make clear that responsibility for Abu Ghraib and other violations of law reaches all the way to the top.”

According to journalist Jennifer Van Bergen, J.D., a member of Lawyers Against the War :  “War crimes and crimes against humanity are crimes recognized throughout the world and where a nation refuses to prosecute its own, the only recourse is universal jurisdiction exercised by other nations.”

:: To view the complaint’s Internet page >>

– Lawyers Against the War (LAW) is an international group of jurists based in Canada with members in fourteen countries dedicated to promoting adherence to the norms of international law.

www.lawyersagainstthewar.org