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

[Suzanne de Kuyper]

I thought that they decided not to do this as the Obama administration would
make a mockery of thier law!  The U S must be pleased for the photo-op.

Suzanne                      suzannedk at gmail.com

On Sat, May 2, 2009 at 11:04 PM, Sid Shniad <shniad at sfu.ca> wrote:

>
> 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
> n




> ecessary 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.
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