Posted on 01/28/2005 10:55:11 AM PST by knighthawk
BERLIN: German justice authorities will not be taking legal action against US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq, a newspaper reported here yesterday.
The daily Tagesspiegel, in advance extract of its Friday edition, said that federal prosecutor Kay Nehm would not seek to try Rumsfeld because no Germans were victims of the US troop offences at the notorious prison near Baghdad.
The paper said that under the law, Nehm could only take action if Germans were suspected of committing crimes or of being the victims of crimes.
On November 30, an international legal team filed a criminal complaint in Berlin against Rumsfeld and other senior US officials over the abuses.
The New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and Berlin's Republican Lawyers' Association said they and four Iraqi citizens mistreated by US soldiers were seeking a probe by German prosecutors of US policy-makers.
They said they had chosen Germany because of its Code of Crimes Against International Law, introduced in 2002, which grants German courts universal jurisdiction in cases involving war crimes or crimes against humanity.
The CCR said that the four Iraqis it was representing had been victims of mistreatment including electric shock, severe beatings, sleep and food deprivation and sexual abuse while in US custody.
Rumsfeld was scheduled to take part in an international security conference in the southern city of Munich next month, but pulled out due to prior commitments amid speculation he was snubbing Germany over the possible legal action.
Ping
Thank goodness, I actually thought Rumsfeld would sit in the Hess Suite in Spandau Prison.
Whew!!!
Close call, Rummy!
Dear Germany: Did you say something? I can't hear you.....
Oh goody, now I can sleep at night!!!
The Germans can't do SQUAT to Rumsfeld. Heh Heh the DUmmies are going to be very upset!
Translation: Germans looking for a way to get back at Rummy for BASE CLOSINGS.
Oops, spotted a typo: (CCRP).
All fixed.
this would almost be laughable until you stop to think that this is the way that the MSM and many countries think.. very disheartening.........
Translation: Germans looking for a way to get back at Rummy for BASE CLOSINGS.
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Exactly! Choke on it Germany --- you get what you deserve.
Rummy will have to cancel "Drang Nach West" for Poland now.
I still won't buy another German car EVER
How thoughtful of the German's. I guess they were afraid of being charged as a nation for all the Poles, Hungarians, British and Slovaks the Nazi's murdered.
If they would have tried to prosecute Rummy, I would have consider it a hostile act that would have deserved a hostile answer.
You know you're HURTING them when they start to WHINE!
BASE CLOSURES IN GERMANY NOW!
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