Spanish Judge to Investigate Torture at Gitmo

Declassified memos show there were abuses, Garzon says
Posted Apr 29, 2009 2:56 PM CDT
Spanish Judge to Investigate Torture at Gitmo
Soldiers in a Humvee patrol the perimeter of the Camp Delta detention compound, which has housed foreign prisoners since 2002, at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, in Cuba, Friday, June 6, 2008.    (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

A Spanish judge has launched a probe into allegations of torture at the American prison at Guantanamo Bay, AFP reports. Baltasar Garzon initiated the investigation after reading statements by Spanish citizen Hamed Abderrahman Ahmed and three other prisoners about their treatment there. Garzon also said that the memos recently declassified by the Obama administration raised concerns about the Gitmo program.

The documents “have revealed what was previously a suspicion: the existence of an authorized and systematic program of torture and mistreatment,” Garzon said. Garzon famously ordered the arrest of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998, under the Spanish legal principle of universal jurisdiction in cases of crimes against humanity, terrorism, and genocide.
(More Guantanamo Bay stories.)

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