US faces war crime case for abuse

From correspondents in Berlin
November 30, 2004

LAWYERS acting for a US advocacy group will file war crimes charges in Germany against senior US 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 Centre for Constitutional Rights, a human rights group, was quoted as saying in the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper.

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 Defence 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 tomorrow.

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