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Spain judge weighing probe of US lawyers who promoted Guantanamo: reports

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Crusading Spanish judge Baltazar Garzon has asked prosecutors to examine the US lawyers reportedly behind the establishment of the Guantanamo Bay detention center, Spanish media reported Saturday. Garzon's request comes after a criminal complaint was filed last week in the Audiencia Nacional against six lawyers from the administration of former US president George W. Bush, including David Addington, John Yoo, and former attorney general Alberto Gonzales. The lawsuit, brought under Spain's universal jurisdiction statute, alleges that the six lawyers committed crimes against the international community, as well as crimes against persons and property protected during armed conflict, in violation of the Spanish constitution, as well as the Geneva Conventions and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Garzon, famed for indicting Osama bin Laden and former Latin American dictator Augusto Pinochet, is well known for his involvement in high-profile investigations of terror and human rights cases. Last October, he ordered the exhumation of 19 mass graves in Spain, launching an investigation into the disappearances of tens of thousands of people beginning in the Spanish Civil War, and continuing through the early years of the Francisco Franco dictatorship. Garzon has also called for the creation of a "truth commission" to uncover Franco-era abuses.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on March 28, 2009 (boomark / email).