Group to charge US with war crimes

"German law in this area is leading the world," Peter Weiss, vice-president of the New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a human rights group, was quoted as saying in Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper on Tuesday.

CCR says German law allows war criminals to be investigated wherever they may be living.

The case, which will be filed at Germany's Federal Prosecutors Office, will charge Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, former CIA chief George Tenet and eight other officials.

According to Jen Nessel, head of communications and publications at CCR, the group is to present details of its case at several news conferences starting at 1700 GMT on Tuesday.

Abu Ghraib abuses

Fallout from the abuses at Abu Ghraib have continued to resonate in the US and elsewhere since US media first published graphic photographs of Iraqi detainees in various stages of sexual abuse and torture.

Several trials of US soldiers are ongoing, the latest conviction resulting in an eight-year sentence for US Staff Sergeant Ivan "Chip" Frederick for sexually and physically torturing Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib.

At a court martial near Baghdad airport, Judge Colonel James Pohl also sentenced the army reservist on Thursday to a reduction in rank to private, forfeiture of pay and a dishonourable discharge.

It was the toughest sentence in three convictions to date related to degrading abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison.
Aljazeera + Agencies

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B7E0170C-9DF9-4923-ABD4-322FF41A1E1D.htm

Lawyers acting for a U.S. advocacy group will Tuesday file war crimes charges in Germany against senior U.S. administration officials for their alleged role in torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

"German law in this area is leading the world," Peter Weiss, vice president of the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a human rights group, was quoted as saying in Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper's Tuesday edition.

According to the group, German law allows war criminals to be investigated wherever they may be living.

Those to be named in the case to be filed at Germany's Federal Prosecutors Office include Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former Central Intelligence Agency chief George Tenet and eight other officials.

The group is due to present details of its case at several news conferences Tuesday, according to invitations faxed to media organizations.

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