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BERLIN - Human rights activists yesterday launched an attempt to persuade German prosecutors to open a war crimes investigation against former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for his alleged role in abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at Guantanamo Bay.
In a 220-page document lodged with Germany's federal prosecutor's office, the US-based Centre for Constitutional Rights alleged that Mr Rumsfeld and eleven other high ranking US intelligence and military figures either ordered, aided or failed to prevent war crimes at both prisons.
The plaintiffs, acting on behalf of 12 alleged torture victims, were making use of a German law which allows the pursuit of war crimes cases anywhere in the world, although a similar attempt to bring charges against Mr Rumsfeld in 2004 was rejected by German prosecutors.
Michael Ratner, the President of the Centre for Constitutional Rights said yesterday that he believed the case now had a better chance because Mr Rumsfeld had left office and could no longer claim immunity or exert any "political pressure."
"One of our goals has been to say a torturer is someone who cannot be given a safe haven. It sends a strong message that this is not acceptable," he said.
The evidence against Mr Rumsfeld and the others is based on statements by 11 Iraqis held at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison and Mohamad al-Qahtani, a Saudi national held at Guantanamo Bay who the US claims to have identified as a would-be participant in the September 11 attacks.
Mr Rumsfeld is accused of personally approving the abuse of Mr al-Qahtani after he failed to crack under routine interrogation.
The Pentagon has insisted that he was not tortured.
Former US'Army Brigadier Janis Karpinski, who was in charge of US prisons in Iraq when several prisoners were abused at Abu Ghraib, has also agreed to appear as a key witness for the plaintiffs.
Ten US soldiers have been found guilty of abuses at the prison.
The Bush administration maintains that they were acting without official sanction.
- INDEPENDENT
