Monday, March 30, 2009

Get A Good Lawyer...Spain tells Feith, Yoo, Addington, Bybee, and Gonzales

Judge Garzón, has built an international reputation by bringing high-profile cases against human rights violators as well as international terrorist networks like Al Qaeda. The arrest warrant for General Pinochet led to his detention in Britain, although he never faced a trial. The judge has also been outspoken about the treatment of detainees at Guantánamo Bay.

Spain can claim jurisdiction in the case because five citizens or residents of Spain who were prisoners at Guantánamo Bay have said they were tortured there. The five had been indicted in Spain, but their cases were dismissed after the Spanish Supreme Court ruled that evidence obtained under torture was not admissible.

From The Raw Story:

After a former Bush official responded to a lawyer who's suing him for alleged torture at Guantanamo Bay, the lawyer has fired back in kind.

Douglas Feith, former undersecretary of defense under President George W. Bush, is accused by Spanish human rights lawyers of providing legal cover to Bush policies under which detainees were tortured. The lawyers want to try a number of Bush officials -- among them former Bush Attorney General Alberto Gonzales -- in Spanish court.

Feith fired back in an interview Sunday, saying, "the charges as related to me make no sense."

"They criticize me for promoting a controversial position that I never advocated," Feith added.

In response, Gonzalo Boye, one of the lawyers filing the complaint, advised Feith to get a "very good lawyer."

“I would recommend that Mr. Feith first of all read the complaint, and secondly that he get a very good lawyer,” Boye said. “If he is so sure of what he is saying — then the address of the national court is #22 Genova Street, second floor.”

The five others accused -- David Addington, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney; Jay Bybee, one of the authors of a now-infamous Bush "torture memo;" William Haynes; John Yoo, one of the architects of Bush's 'enhanced interrogation' policy; and Alberto Gonzales, Bush's ex-Attorney General -- have all declined comment on the charges.

1 comment:

Patricia said...

I guess this means they won't be leaving the country much for a while.