New Gitmo torture probe begins in Spain

A SPANISH judge yesterday opened a new investigation into alleged torture at the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay.

Judge Baltasar Garzon would probe the "perpetrators, the instigators, the necessary collaborators and accomplices" to crimes of torture at the prison at the US naval base in southern Cuba, it said.

The judge based his decision on statements by Hamed Abderrahman Ahmed, known as the "Spanish Taliban" and three other former Guantanamo detainees — a Moroccan, a Palestinian and a Libyan — who alleged they had suffered torture at the camp.

"It seems that the documents declassified by the US administration mentioned by the media have revealed what was previously a suspicion — the existence of an authorised and systematic programme of torture" at Guantanamo and other prisons including that in Bagram in Afghanistan, Garzon said.

The decision was unrelated to another investigation by Garzon into six officials of the former US administration of George W Bush over alleged torture at Guantanamo Bay.

Prosecutors this month issued an official request to the judge to drop that probe, saying Garzon was not qualified to carry out such a "general inquiry into policies put in place by the previous US administration."

They also argued the complaint should first have been brought before a US court.

Spain has since 2005 operated under the principle of "universal jurisdiction," a doctrine that allows courts to reach beyond national borders in cases of torture, terrorism or war crimes, although the government reportedly aims to limit the scope of the legal process.AFP