CCR, working with our international partners, has filed several cases against former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for his role in the torture of detainees at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. Because the United States is not a member of the International Criminal Court, and because the U.S. has failed to prosecute anyone up the chain of command for the abuses that occurred, the only remaining options for justice are countries with laws that allow for the prosecution of serious international crimes like torture regardless of where they occurred or the nationality of the perpetrators or victims.
We filed a complaint with the Paris prosecutor on October 25, 2007 charging Rumsfeld with ordering and authorizing torture. Rumsfeld was in Paris for a talk sponsored by Foreign Policy magazine, and left through a door connecting to the U.S. embassy to avoid journalists and human rights attorneys outside. Under French law, there is a duty to prosecute and investigate such complaints when the torturer is on French soil. The Paris case is particularly relevant because eight former Guantánamo detainees live in France. Watch CCR president Micahael ratner discussing the importance of this case.
CCR worked with the same partners to file earlier cases against Rumsfeld, Gonzales and other high-ranking U.S. officials for war crimes in Germany in 2004 and 2006. The German case was dismissed in April 2007 and is being appealed in October 2007.
CCR’s partners in the cases against Rumsfeld include the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), and the French League for Human Rights.
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