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Torture Complaint Filed Against Rumsfeld
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
AP - Oct 26, 2007
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FRANCE_RUMSFELD?SITE=NH****&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Torture Complaint Filed Against Rumsfeld
By PIERRE-ANTOINE SOUCHARD
Associated Press Writer
PARIS (AP) -- American and European rights groups filed a legal
complaint in France accusing former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld of responsibility for torture in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay.
The complaint was filed with the Paris prosecutor's office as Rumsfeld
arrived in France for a visit, according to the New York-based Center
for Constitutional Rights, the Berlin-based European Center for
Constitutional and Human Rights and two Paris-based groups, the
International Federation of Human Rights and the League of Human Rights.
Lawrence Di Rita, former Pentagon spokesman under Rumsfeld, said:
"These assertions have no merit, and they have been completely
dismissed when made in other jurisdictions."
"Complaints such as this have zero foundation in the truth or the facts
as presented in countless investigations," he said.
The rights groups say their complaint could go forward because people
suspected of torture can be prosecuted in France if they are on French
soil.
The complaint will now be examined by French prosecutors, who will
decide whether it is well-founded and should be pursued or whether it
should be rejected. The Paris prosecutor's office said on Friday night
that it was checking whether Rumsfeld is protected by any sort of
diplomatic immunity and whether he was still in France.
The complaint says Rumsfeld, in his former position as defense
secretary, "authorized and ordered crimes of torture to be carried
out ... as well as other war crimes."
Filed Thursday, the complaint cites various do***ents, including memos
from Rumsfeld, internal re****ts and testimony from former U.S. Army
Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski - the one-time commander of U.S. military
prisons in Iraq - to bolster its claims. It asks the prosecutor to open
an inquiry and take Rumsfeld into custody.
"We know that we can't get him into prison right now, but it would be
great to make sure that he couldn't safely leave the U.S. anymore,"
said Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Ratner's group already filed a formal request in Germany to try to
bring an investigation against Rumsfeld and other current and former
Bush administration officials for either ordering, aiding or failing to
prevent torture.
German federal prosecutors rejected that request in April, saying it
was up to the U.S. to hold any inquiry.
Associated Press Writer Verena von Derschau contributed to this re****t.
(c) 2007 The Associated Press.
*
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