Invoking universal jurisdiction torture investigations an "irritant" to US/Spain relationship

Solly Mack

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Wed Dec-01-10 10:17 AM
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Invoking universal jurisdiction torture investigations an "irritant" to US/Spain relationship

JUNE 2009

SUBJECT: SCENESETTER FOR DHS. SEC. NAPOLITANO'S JULY 1 MEETINGS IN MADRID

//US-SPAIN RELATIONS//

"One recent irritant in bilateral relationship is are the efforts by some investigating judges - invoking "universal jurisdiction" - to indict former USG officials for their allegedly involvement in torture at GTMO (Ref D)."

March 28, 2009

Spanish Court Weighs Inquiry on Torture for 6 Bush-Era Officials

A Spanish court has taken the first steps toward opening a criminal investigation into allegations that six former high-level Bush administration officials violated international law by providing the legal framework to justify the torture of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, an official close to the case said.

The case, against former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and others, was sent to the prosecutor’s office for review by Baltasar Garzón, the crusading investigative judge who ordered the arrest of the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. The official said that it was “highly probable” that the case would go forward and that it could lead to arrest warrants

Spain can claim jurisdiction in the case because five citizens or residents of Spain who were prisoners at Guantánamo Bay have said they were tortured there. The five had been indicted in Spain, but their cases were dismissed after the Spanish Supreme Court ruled that evidence obtained under torture was not admissible.

The National Court in Madrid, which specializes in international crimes, assigned the case to Judge Garzón. His acceptance of the case and referral of it to the prosecutor made it likely that a criminal investigation would follow, the official said.

March 29, 2009

Spanish judge to hear torture case against six Bush officials

The case is bound to threaten Spain's relations with the new administration in Washington, but Gonzalo Boyé, one of the four lawyers who wrote the lawsuit, said the prosecutor would have little choice under Spanish law but to approve the prosecution.

"The only route of escape the prosecutor might have is to ask whether there is ongoing process in the US against these people," Boyé told the Observer. "This case will go ahead. It will be against the law not to go ahead."

The officials named in the case include the most senior legal minds in the Bush administration. They are: Alberto Gonzales, a former White House counsel and attorney general; David Addington, former vice-president Dick Cheney's chief of staff; Douglas Feith, who was under-secretary of defence; William Haynes, formerly the Pentagon's general counsel; and John Yoo and Jay Bybee, who were both senior justice department legal advisers.

If Garzón decided to go further and issued arrest warrants against the six, it would mean they would risk detention and extradition if they travelled outside the US. It would also present President Barack Obama with a serious dilemma. He would have either to open proceedings against the accused or tackle an extradition request from Spain.

April 29, 2009

Spanish court opens investigation of Guantánamo torture allegations

A court in Spain has today opened an investigation into torture allegations against US military personnel at the Guantánamo detention centre.

Judge Baltasar Garzón, an investigating magistrate at the National Court in Madrid, said he would investigate allegations made by four detainees who were held at the centre and later released without charges, according to a court document quoted by the Spanish press.

The torture allegations include "sexual abuse", "beating" and the throwing of fluids into prisoners' eyes.

A recent decision by the Obama administration to release documents about Guantánamo helped the judge conclude that a police investigation, which could lead to criminal charges, was necessary.

November 30, 2010

Wikileaks: US pressured Spain over CIA rendition and Guantánamo torture

US officials tried to influence Spanish prosecutors and government officials to head off court investigations into Guantánamo Bay torture allegations, secret CIA "extraordinary rendition" flights and the killing of a Spanish journalist by US troops in Iraq, according to secret US diplomatic cables.

Among their biggest worries were investigations pursued by the magistrate Baltasar Garzón, who US officials described as having "an anti-American streak".

A major worry was a torture case brought by a Spanish non-governmental organisation against six senior Bush administration officials, including the former attorney general Alberto Gonzales.

Senator Mel Martinez, a former Republican party chairman, and the US embassy's charge d'affaires visited the Spanish foreign ministry to warn the investigation would have consequences. "Martinez and the charge underscored that the prosecutions would ... have an enormous impact on the bilateral relationship," the officials reported.

April 7, 2010

Profile: Judge Baltasar Garzon

Mr Garzon came to worldwide attention in the late 1990s, when the former Chilean military ruler Augusto Pinochet was arrested in London on his initiative.

He was acting under Spain's principle of universal jurisdiction, which holds that some crimes are so grave that they can be tried anywhere regardless of where the offences were committed.

Mr Garzon has also initiated other high-profile cases. In 2003 he compiled a 692-page indictment which called for the arrest of 35 men, including Osama Bin Laden, for their alleged membership of a terrorist group. That number was later increased to 41.

Eighteen were found guilty of belonging to an al-Qaeda cell and sentenced to long prison terms.

Baltasar Garzón's own 'legal' troubles...

April 25, 2010

Charismatic judge who pursued Spain's fascist assassins finds himself on trial

The crowd gathered outside Madrid's national court was loud and angry. "The world has been turned upside down," they cried. "The fascists are judging the judge!" Some carried photographs of long-dead relatives, killed by rightwing death squads in Spain's brutal civil war in the 1930s. Others bore placards bearing the name of the hero they wanted to save, the controversial "superjudge" Baltasar Garzón.

The irony of that will be lost on few. The only man to have been punished because of Franco's crimes will be Judge Garzón himself. "If that happens, the reaction will be furious," warns one of the demonstrators outside the National Court, who meet there every day at 8pm. "The assassins will have won."

May 11, 2010

Judge Baltasar Garzón seeks leave of absence from Spanish court

The high-profile judge who indicted Augusto Pinochet and Osama bin Laden is seeking to take a leave of absence as he awaits trial on charges of abuse of authority, a court official said today.

Judge Baltasar Garzón has asked for a seven-month assignment as an adviser at the international criminal court in The Hague, said the official at the National Court, where Garzón works.

Garzón is not resigning, and his departure will not affect the case against him in Spain for having launched a probe of Spanish civil war atrocities that were covered by an amnesty, the official said, on condition of anonymity in line with court policy.

Garzón received a job offer at the international criminal court from Luis Moreno Ocampo, an Argentine who is chief prosecutor at the court, the official said.

Judge Baltasar Garzón suspended over Franco investigation

May 14, 2010

The stellar career of the crusading Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón may have come to an abrupt end today after he was suspended from his post as an investigating magistrate at Madrid's national court.

The higher council of judicial power, which oversees Spain's judges, temporarily suspended Garzón while the supreme court tries him on charges of distorting the law by opening an investigation into crimes against humanity carried out by the Franco regime.

"It will come into effect as soon as he is told," the council's spokeswoman, Gabriela Bravo, said this morning.

Judges and co-workers later lined up outside the national court to say goodbye to the man whose investigations into Latin American dictators, including Augusto Pinochet of Chile, had turned the court into a key player in global human rights