Charges sought against Rumsfeld

news24dotcom ^ | 30/11/2004 | unknown

[OSHA]

Berlin - An international legal team filed a criminal complaint in Germany on Tuesday against US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top US officials over the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq.

The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and Berlin's Republican Lawyers' Association said they and five Iraqi citizens mistreated by US soldiers were seeking a probe by German federal prosecutors of leading US policymakers.

They said they had chosen Germany because of its Code of Crimes Against International Law, introduced in 2002, which grants German courts universal jurisdiction in cases involving war crimes or crimes against humanity.

Civilian leaders liable

It also makes military or civilian commanders who fail to prevent their subordinates from committing such acts liable.

"We filed these cases here because there is simply no other place to go," CCR vice president Peter Weiss said in a statement.

"It is clear that the US government is not willing to open an investigation into these allegations against these officials," he said, adding that the US Congress had "failed" to seriously investigate the abuses.

The Center for Constitutional Rights noted that while several US soldiers were facing courts martial for the abuse and sexual humiliation of prisoners at the US-run Abu Ghraib detention center in Iraq, their superiors looked set to escape discipline.

The complaint names Rumsfeld, former CIA director George Tenet, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Steven Cambone, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, Brigadier General Janis L. Karpinski and other military officers who served in Iraq.

Donald Rumsfeld on down

"From Donald Rumsfeld on down, the political and military leaders in charge of Iraq policy must be investigated and held accountable," CCR president Michael Ratner said in a statement.

The CCR said that the five Iraqis it was representing had been victims of mistreatment including electric shock, severe beatings, sleep and food deprivation and sexual abuse.

It noted that Sanchez and other officers involved in the case were based in Germany.

[Tunehead54]

but they apparently had no problem with the mass murder and butchery of one Osama bin Laden...

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Actually they did ... sort of. I forget his name but they found a guy in germany who knew Atta and others in the plot, assisted them directly in the planning and he was convicted of 2700+ murders (WTC, Pentagon,PA). Of course the maximum penalty was 15 years! Prolly out in seven assuming "good behavior". :-( Assuming Rumsfield is convicted I figure the worst they could give him is a couple of weekends in jail given their penalty for 9-11. ;-)

[Michael81Dus]

But you realized that it was Americans filing this complaint to the German Federal Prosecutor, who has made no decision whether to file charges or not?