Torture allegations against former US Defense Secretary Donald
H. Rumsfeld was rejected by a federal judge Tuesday.
According to a report from CNN, US District Judge Thomas F.
Hogan rejected a lawsuit filed on behalf of nine former prisoners
in US military custody in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The reason of the dismissal, said Hogan, is that Rumsfeld cannot
be held personally accountable for actions taken in connection with
his government job.
The lawsuit contends the plaintiffs were beaten, suspended
upside down from the ceiling by chains, urinated on, shocked,
sexually humiliated, burned, locked inside boxes and subjected to
mock executions.
It accuses Rumsfeld and other US government officials of being
personally responsible for approving torture techniques and
violating the US Constitution.
The former detainees who filed the lawsuit said they were all
eventually released from detention and never charged with any crime
or wrongdoing.
The suit seeks compensatory damages and a judicial declaration
that the legal rights of the prisoners were violated under the
Constitution, the Geneva accords and other international law.
Although allegations in the suit may be the equivalent of war
crimes, it is a civil case, not a criminal one.
Because according to US laws, only the US government is
empowered to prosecute war crimes in criminal court or before a
military court.
The case is an attempt to have US officials held accountable for
alleged abuse of Iraqi and Afghan civilians who were never held as
enemy combatants or charged with any crime.
(Xinhua News Agency March 28, 2007)
