A US advocacy group is preparing to launch a war crimes case in Germany against senior US administration officials for their alleged role in torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
"German law in this area is leading the world," Peter Weiss, vice president of the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a human rights group, was quoted as saying in Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper's on Tuesday.
CCR says German law allows war criminals to be investigated wherever they may be living.
The case, which will be filed at Germany's Federal Prosecutors Office, will charge Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief George Tenet and eight other officials.
Aljazeera article"German law in this area is leading the world," Peter Weiss, vice president of the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a human rights group, was quoted as saying in Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper's on Tuesday.
CCR says German law allows war criminals to be investigated wherever they may be living.
The case, which will be filed at Germany's Federal Prosecutors Office, will charge Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief George Tenet and eight other officials.
A symbolic case at best, to join the "International Criminal Tribunal" in Tokyo which found George W. Bush (and the U.S.) guilty of war crimes on March 13, 2004, and the war crimes case Belgium dropped - actually changed their law under U.S. pressure.
And related....
The US Congress has launched a fresh attack on the international criminal court at The Hague, threatening to cut off development aid to countries who refuse to guarantee immunity from prosecution for Americans at the tribunal.
Guardian article
[...]
The new provision, included in a budget bill due for a vote on December 8, would add pressure on recalcitrant countries by cutting off civil as well as military aid.
[...]
Washington claims that 96 countries have signed immunity pacts, although some have been kept secret at the request of signatories concerned about the popular reaction at home. Meanwhile, 97 countries have ratified the ICC treaty.
No comments:
Post a Comment