• Military
• WMD

• Intelligence Menu               

• Systems
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Imagery
• Links

• Homeland Security
• Space

Bush risks prosecution around world, says Amnesty

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, Feb 7, IRNA -- Amnesty International has repeated its call on US authorities to investigate the responsibility of the highest US officials for torture following former president George W Bush cancelling a visit to Switzerland.

The London-based human rights organisation revealed that it had sent a detailed factual and legal analysis to Swiss prosecutors, claiming there was sufficient information to open a criminal investigation against Bush.

'Such an investigation would be mandatory under Switzerland's international obligations if President Bush entered the country,' it said.

'Anywhere in the world that he travels, President Bush could face investigation and potential prosecution for his responsibility for torture and other crimes in international law, particularly in any of the 147 countries that are party to the UN convention against torture.'

The planned visit to Switzerland next weekend would have been the former president’s first to Europe since he admitted in his autobiography, he had authorised the use of waterboarding – simulated drowning – on detainees at Guantánamo Bay.

Last November, London mayor Boris Johnson also warned Bush to stay away from Britain and other European countries to promote his memoirs, saying that he would not only be subjected to anti-war protests but that he may face arrest for torture.

Amnesty criticised US authorities for failing to open investigations that can adequately examine the former president’s potential criminal responsibility for torture.

“To date, we’ve seen a handful of military investigations into detentions and interrogations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo. But none of these has had the independence and reach necessary to investigate high-level officials such as President Bush,” said Salil Shetty, secretary general of Amnesty.

“There has been virtually zero accountability for crimes committed in the CIA’s secret detention program, which was authorized by then-President Bush,” Shatty said.

“As the US authorities have, so far, failed to bring President Bush to justice, the international community must step in,' he warned.

2220**345**1416
Islamic Republic News Agency/IRNA NewsCode: 30229279