U.N. complaint alleges illegal pressure on Spain to stop Bush torture trials [View all]

[kpete]

U.N. complaint alleges illegal pressure on Spain to stop Bush torture trials

By Stephen C. Webster
Thursday, January 19, 2012

A complaint filed Thursday with the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers alleges that the United States and the government of Spain colluded to stop the Spanish judiciary from prosecuting U.S. figures for torture under a legal theory construct known as universal jurisdiction.

Those individuals that Spanish courts sought to prosecute included six former Bush administration attorneys who approved the use of torture tactics in enemy interrogations. The U.S.-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed the complaint with the help of the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR).

The allegations of improper influence on Spain’s judiciary spring from a collection of 14 U.S. embassy cables (PDF) http://ccrjustice.org/files/Appendix%20whole.pdf authored by the Bush and Obama administrations, revealed by anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.


“We submit that the U.S. diplomatic cables – the key documents of which are annexed to this complaint – demonstrate a coordinated effort, led by U.S. officials and involving certain senior members of the Spanish government, to obstruct and otherwise interfere with the outcome of these three cases,” the complaint reads. “We maintain that the aim of this concerted action was to prejudice the outcome of these cases in favor of the defendants and thereby subvert the course of justice in Spain.”

more:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/19/u-n-complaint-alleges-illegal-pressure-on-spain-to-stop-bush-torture-trials/