[R-G] Spanish Judge Opens Probe Into Guantanamo Torture

[Sid Shniad]

http://www.truthout.org/042909T 

Spanish Judge Opens Probe Into Guantanamo Torture 

Agence France-Presse: April 29, 2009 

Madrid - A Spanish judge on Wednesday opened an investigation into an 
alleged "systematic programme" of torture at the US Guantanamo Bay detention 
camp, following accusations by four former prisoners. 

Judge Baltasar Garzon will probe the "perpetrators, the instigators, the 
necessary collaborators and accomplices" to crimes of torture at the prison 
at the US naval base in southern Cuba, he said in his ruling, a copy of 
which was seen by AFP. 

The judge based his decision on statements by Hamed Abderrahman Ahmed, 
known as the "Spanish Taliban" and three other former Guantanamo detainees - 
a Moroccan, a Palestinian and a Libyan. 

Garzon said that documents declassified by the US administration and 
carried by US media "have revealed what was previously a suspicion: the 
existence of an authorised and systematic programme of torture and 
mistreatment of persons deprived of their freedom" that flouts international 
conventions. 

This points to "the possible existence of concerted actions by the US 
administration for the execution of a multitude of crimes of torture against 
persons deprived of their freedom in Guantanamo and other prisons including 
that of Bagram" in Afghanistan. 

The four former Guantanamo detainees alleged they were held in cramped 
cells and suffered beatings and other physical and mental mistreatment. 

The Palestinian, Jamiel Abdelatif al Banna, said he suffered "blows to 
the head that caused him to lose consciousness, was detained in an 
underground place without light for three weeks and deprived of food and 
sleep." 

The decision by Garzon, known around the world for ordering the arrest 
of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in London in 1998, was unrelated 
to another investigation by the judge into six officials of the former US 
administration of George W. Bush over alleged torture at Guantanamo Bay. 

Prosecutors this month issued an official request to the judge to drop 
that probe, arguing that the complaint targets officials who did not have 
the power to make decisions but who simply "drafted non-binding judicial 
reports." 

Spain since 2005 has assumed the principle of universal jurisdiction in 
alleged cases of crimes against humanity, genocide, and terrorism. But it 
can only proceed when any such cases of the alleged crimes are not already 
subject to a legal procedure in the country involved. 

Several human rights groups have asked judges in different countries to 
indict Bush administration officials over the camp, which US President 
Barack Obama has vowed to close by January 2010. 

More than 800 detainees have been held at the US military prison since 
2002. 

Some 240 people are still there. About 60 of them have been deemed 
eligible for release, but the Obama administration is struggling to arrange 
their transfer to a third country. 

The Bush administration had charged about 20 of the detainees on 
terror-related charges, including two prisoners arrested when they were 
still teenagers.