DONALD RUMSFELD CHARGED WITH TORTURE DURING TRIP TO FRANCE

 Today, the International Federation for
Human Rights (FIDH) along with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR),

the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), and

the rench League for Human Rights filed a complaint with the Paris Prosecutor

before the “Court of First Instance” (Tribunal de Grande Instance) charging former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with ordering and authorizing torture. Rumsfeld was in Paris for a talk sponsored by Foreign Policy magazine, and left through a door connecting to the U.S. embassy to avoid journalists and human rights attorneys outside.

“The filing of this French case against Rumsfeld demonstrates that we will not rest until those U.S. officials involved in the torture program are brought to justice. Rumsfeld must understand that he has no place to hide. A torturer is an enemy of all humankind,” said CCR President Michael Ratner.

“France is under the obligation to investigate and prosecute Rumsfeld’s
accountability for crimes of torture in Guantanamo and Iraq. France has no choice but to open an investigation if an alleged torturer is on its
territory. I hope that the fight against impunity will not be sacrificed in
the name of politics. We call on France to refuse to be a safe haven for
criminals.” said FIDH President Souhayr Belhassen.

“We want to combat impunity and therefore demand a judicial investigation and a criminal prosecution wherever there is jurisdiction over the torture incidents,” said ECCHR General Secretary Wolfgang Kaleck.

The criminal complaint states that because of the failure of authorities in
the United States and Iraq to launch any independent investigation into the responsibility of Rumsfeld and other high-level U.S. officials for torture despite a documented paper trail and government memos implicating them in direct as well as command responsibility for torture - and because the U.S.
has refused to join the International Criminal Court - it is the legal
obligation of states such as France to take up the case.

In this case, charges are brought under the 1984 Convention against Torture, ratified by both the United States and France, which has been used in France in previous torture cases.

French courts therefore have an obligation under the Convention against Torture to prosecute individuals responsible for acts of torture if they are present on French territory[1]. This will be the only case filed while he is in the country, which makes the obligations to investigate and prosecute under international law extremely strong.

Rumsfeld’s presence on French territory gives French courts jurisdiction to prosecute him for having ordered and authorized torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees in Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere.

In addition, having resigned from his position of U.S. Secretary of Defense a year ago, Rumsfeld can no longer try to claim immunity as a head of state or government official. Nor can he claim immunity as former state official, as international law does not recognize such immunity in the case o international crimes including the crime of torture.

Former U.S. Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, former commander of Abu Ghraib and other U.S.-run prisons in Iraq, submitted written testimony to the Paris Prosecutor for the plaintiffs’ case on Rumsfeld’s responsibility for the abuse of detainees.

This is the fifth time Rumsfeld has been charged with direct involvement in torture stemming from his role in the Bush administration’s program of torture post-9/11.

Two previous criminal complaints were filed in Germany under its universal jurisdiction statute, which allows Germany to prosecute serious international crimes regardless of where they occurred or the nationality of the perpetrators or victims. One case was filed in fall 2004 by CCR, FIDH, and Berlin attorney Wolfgang Kaleck; that case was dismissed in February 2005 in response to official pressure from the U.S., in particular from the Pentagon.

The second case was filed in fall 2006 by the same groups as well as dozens of national and international human rights groups, Nobel Peace Prize winners and the United Nations former Special Rapporteur on Torture. The 2006 complaint was presented on behalf of 12 Iraqi citizens who had been held and abused in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and one Saudi citizen still held at Guantánamo.

This case was dismissed in April 2007, and an appeal will be filed against this decision next week.

Two other cases were filed against Rumsfeld in Argentina in 2005 and in Sweden in 2007.

The Center for Constitutional Rights represents many of the detainees at Guantánamo and coordinates the work of nearly 500 pro bono attorneys on their cases. The Center will be representing detainees before the U.S. Supreme Court on December 5, 2007.

Associated Press: Rights groups file torture complaint against Rumsfeld

Paris (AP): American and European rights groups filed a legal complaint in France accusing former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of responsibility for torture in Iraq and at the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, the groups said on Friday.

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, said they filed the complaint with the Paris prosecutor’s office as Rumsfeld arrived in France for a visit.

The 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 says Rumsfeld, in his former position as defence secretary, “authorized and ordered crimes of torture to be carried out ... as well as other war crimes.”

Filed on Thursday, the complaint cites various documents, including memos from Rumsfeld, internal reports and testimony from former US Army Brig Gen Janis Karpinski, the one-time commander of US 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 US 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 officials for either ordering, aiding or failing to prevent the torture.

See also Le Monde
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3210,36-971351@51-971276,0.html

[1] See articles 689 para 1 and 2 of the french Code of Criminal Procedure :

 Article 689-1)

In accordance with the international Conventions quoted in the following
articles, a person guilty of committing any of the offences listed by these
provisions outside the territory of the Republic and who happens to be in
France may be prosecuted and tried by French courts. The provisions of the
present article apply to attempts to commit these offences, in every case
where attempt is punishable.

 Article 689-2

For the implementation of the Convention against Torture and other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, adopted in New York on 10th
December 1984, any person guilty of torture in the sense of article 1 of the
Convention may be prosecuted and tried in accordance with the provisions of
article 689-1.