Home > Rumsfeld Scraps Visit To Germany Over Abu Ghraib War Crimes Probe
Rumsfeld Scraps Visit To Germany Over Abu Ghraib War Crimes Probe
by Open-Publishing - Tuesday 25 January 2005Wars and conflicts Justice Europe USA
Rumsfeld Scraps Visit To Germany
Over Abu Ghraib War Crimes Probe
MUNICH - Due to Germany’s refusal to halt a law suit against him, United States Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he will not take part at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, in February, according to Expatica.
The lawsuit, filed by the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights in December with the Federal German Prosecutor’s Office, accuses Rumsfeld of war crimes and torture in connection with detainee abuses at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison.
The organization alleges violations of German legislation, which outlaws war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide independent of the place of crime or origin of the accused,
With The Center for Constitutional Rights, four Iraqis tortured in U.S. custody filed the complaint against Rumsfeld, former CIA director George Tenet, and eight other senior military and civilian officials over abuses at Abu Ghraib and in Iraq.
The organization said it had turned to German prosecutors “as a court of last resort” because the U.S. government “is unwilling to open an independent investigation” and had “refused to join the International Criminal Court,” according to Expatica.