International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)
European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR)
Ligue des droits de l'Homme et du citoyen (LDH)
Press release
France/USA
Complaint Filed Against Former Defense Secretary for Torture, Abuse at Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib
October 26, 2007, Paris, 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 French
League for Human Rights (LDH) 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.
“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.
"That a criminal State representative should benefit from impunity is
always unacceptable. Because the USA is the super power of the
beginning of this century and, above all, because it is a democracy,
the impunity of Donald Rumsfeld is even more insufferable than that of
a Hissène Habré or a Radovan Karadzic", underlined
Jean-Pierre Dubois, LDH President.
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 of 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 complaint and the documents attached are available on FIDH Website :
http://www.fidh.org/spip.php?article4831
Cooperator
World Coalition Against Torturers (WCAT)
Project Management
Bianca Schmolze
Bianca Schmolze
has a Master of Business Administration and works for the Medical Care
Service for Refugees since 2002. After serving as a fundraiser, she
became responsible coordinator of the "Justice heals" campaign in 2004.
Furthermore, she has a mandate in the city council of Bochum.
Tel.: +49-(0)234-9041380
Fax: +49-(0)234-9041381
(Thursday and Friday, 10.00–18.00 Uhr)
Supported by
Manfred
Nowak,
UN Special Rapporteur on Torture