Tuesday, November 14, 2006
The Center for Constitutional Rights is pressing forward with its suit against Rumsfeld -- as usual, in German courts because of Germany's universal jurisdiction law. Here's Reuters:
As mentioned above, this is the second time the CCR has tried to prosecute Rumsfeld. The first time was in 2004 but the complaint was thrown out -- I think, in 2005. They're filing it again, arguing that due to current events Rumsfeld can no longer claim immunity. Actually, according to the Reuters article, the new complaint "contains substantial new evidence", so perhaps the new evidence is a factor beyond Rumsfeld getting axed that is driving the new filing.
The entire old complaint is publicly available for download -- not sure if the new one is available as well...
German prosecutors received a complaint on Tuesday from rights groups seeking charges against outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for alleged abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo prisons.
The federal prosecutor's office, which refused to take up a similar case in 2004, confirmed it had received the complaint, which also names U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, former CIA director George Tenet and high-ranking military officers.
"We received it by email this morning," spokesman Frank Wallenta said. "We have to look at it and that will take some time."
He declined to say when the prosecutor's office, based in Karlsruhe, could make a decision on the complaint, which he said was over 300 pages long.
As mentioned above, this is the second time the CCR has tried to prosecute Rumsfeld. The first time was in 2004 but the complaint was thrown out -- I think, in 2005. They're filing it again, arguing that due to current events Rumsfeld can no longer claim immunity. Actually, according to the Reuters article, the new complaint "contains substantial new evidence", so perhaps the new evidence is a factor beyond Rumsfeld getting axed that is driving the new filing.
The entire old complaint is publicly available for download -- not sure if the new one is available as well...
Labels: CCR, Rumsfeld, War Crimes
