A French court
on Thursday summoned former Guantanamo prison chief Geoffrey Miller over
accusations of torture by two ex-detainees, in a move their lawyer said would
open the door to further prosecutions.
Nizar Sassi
and Mourad Benchellali, both French citizens, were arrested by U.S. forces in
Afghanistan before being transferred to the notorious prison set up in
Guantanamo Bay to hold terror suspects after the 9/11 attacks.
They were
held there from the end of 2001 until 2004 and 2005 respectively, before being
sent home.
A French
probe into their case began after they filed a complaint in court.
"The
door has opened for civilian and military officials to be prosecuted over international
crimes committed in Guantanamo," their lawyer William Bourdon said.
"This
decision can only... lead to other leaders being summoned."
Despite
promises by U.S. President Barack Obama to close the prison, which is located
in Cuba's Guantanamo Bay -- an area on the east of the island under U.S.
control since a treaty signed in 1903 -- it remains open and still houses
detainees without charge.
The U.S.
presence at Guantanamo Bay, where it also has a naval base, is one of the major
stumbling blocks in Washington and Havana's historic move towards normalizing
ties.
In an
expert report submitted to a French judge last year, lawyers for Sassi and
Benchellali accused Miller of "an authorized and systematic plan of
torture and ill-treatment on persons deprived of their freedom without any
charge and without the basic rights of any detainee."
Miller, who
was commander of the prison from 2002 to 2004 and is now retired, "bears
individual criminal responsibility for the war crimes and acts of torture
inflicted on detainees in US custody at Guantanamo," according to the
report.
Just before
Miller became commander of Guantanamo in late 2002, president George W. Bush's
administration approved so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, including
placing detainees in stress positions, stripping them, isolating them for
extended periods of time and exposing them to extreme heat and cold.
Miller then
implemented these methods.
And even
though then-secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld withdrew permission for the
most controversial of these interrogation techniques shortly thereafter in
January 2003, "under ... Miller's command at Guantanamo, these techniques
continued to be used in certain cases," the detainees' lawyers said last
year.
"These
acts constitute torture and violate, at a minimum, the Geneva Convention's
prohibition on coercive interrogations."
Sassi and
Benchellali are not the only detainees alleging torture during their time at
the prison.
Former
Syrian detainee Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak al Janko had wanted to sue the U.S.
government for damages stemming from his treatment while held at Guantanamo for
seven years until his 2009 release.
In his
complaint, Janko cited years-long solitary confinement, lengthy bouts of sleep
deprivation, "severe beatings," threats against him and his family,
sexually explicit slurs against his female relatives, deprivation of adequate
medical and psychological care, as well as "continuous" humiliation
and harassment.
But last
month, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal, as well as another
by a U.S. rights group.
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