Pave: Tortured Claim Redux

Le jour 194 de Sarko

FRENCH JUSTICE FACED, FIDH RED-FACED BUT SHAMELESS
This Banner Is Still Splashed Across The FIDH Web Site

See our earlier post for background.

LE CAS RUMSFELD : LA FRANCE LUI OFFRE UNE IMMUNITÉ !
[THE RUMSFELD CASE: FRANCE OFFERS HIM IMMUNITY!]

23 novembre 2007 (FIDH) - FIDH, LDH, CCR et ECCHR viennent d’être informées du classement sans suite de la procédure consécutive à leur plainte déposée le 25 octobre 2007 à l’encontre de Monsieur Donald RUMSFELD du chef d’actes de torture.

Cette décision n’a pas été prise en raison d’une quelconque contestation des faits mais d’une prétendue immunité.

... La FIDH, la LDH, le CCR et ECCHR ont demandé ce jour à ce magistrat de revenir sur sa décision de classement sans suite.

[FIDH {Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l'Homme, International Federation for Human Rights}, LDH {Ligue des droits de l'Homme et du citoyen, League for Human Rights}, CCR {Center for Constitutional Rights} and ECCHR {European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights}* have just been informed of the discontinuance of the consecutive proceedings to their registered complaint on October 25, 2007 against Mr Donald Rumsfeld, chief to acts of torture.

This decision was not made because of some dispute with the facts but from an alleged immunity.

We hasten to point out that the court has only ruled on the case's standing -- it has none -- the court has not ruled the plaintiff's brief is chock-a-block with indisputable facts, as the FIDH here suggests. The FIDH has submitted depositions and a theory. The court alone is the trier of fact, not an FIDH press release copywriter.

Oh. Unlike the allegations in the FIDH brief, Mr. Rumsfeld's immunity is something more than "alleged". It has been asserted by the public prosecutor (Jean Claude Marin, Procureur de la République de Paris).

The FIDH, the LDH, the CCR and ECCHR have today asked this magistrate to reconsider his decision of a discontinuation.

FRENCH PROSECUTORS THROW OUT RUMSFELD TORTURE CASE

PARIS November 23, 2007 (Reuters) - The Paris prosecutors' office has dismissed a suit against Donald Rumsfeld accusing the former U.S. defense secretary of torture, human rights groups who brought the case said on Friday.

The plaintiffs, who included the French-based International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) and the U.S. Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), said Rumsfeld had authorized interrogation techniques that led to rights abuses.

Rights abuses would not be the same thing as torture. For example, excessive bail is a rights abuse, it is not torture -- but we quibble. The larger issue here is should known terrorists, those who abet terrorists, and those who associate with terrorists be allowed to plot, aid, and/or execute terrorist acts under the aegis of the law. And further, when such persons present a conflict to a government official sworn to both protect the citizenry and uphold the law, should said official err -- as the FIDH favors -- on the side of the mujahideen who profess murder over the safety of the noncombattant citizenry. [Pause.]

FIDH argues for what amounts to absolute prohibitions against inconveniences, suspensions of rights, abuses, and torture of detainees whose only crimes where to be captured in battle dighted in their native civvies while firing on Americans and coalition forces.

The FIDH said it had received a letter from the prosecutors' office ruling that Rumsfeld benefited from a "customary" immunity from prosecution granted to heads of state and government and foreign ministers, even after they left office.

It said in a statement it was "astonished at such a mistaken argument" ["Les organisations plaignantes sont stupéfaites d’une argumentation aussi erronée."] and said customary immunity from prosecution did not exist under international law.

The suit was filed in October during a visit to France by Rumsfeld.

We, on the other hand, are astonished that reputable headline-grabbing witch-hunting BDS** organizations should be so poorly informed on international legal norms and so poorly vet their case. Previously FIDH lost a similar filing in Germany.

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* The ECCHR Web site still prominently features its bagging-Rumsfeld story from October 26, even though it is flanked by news stories from November (screenshot). Apparently it is in the dark, or perhaps it cannot bear to lose its magic moment headline.

** Bush Derangement Syndrome, described here by Charles Krauthammer, the clinician who first recognized it. When Mr. Bush is gone, organizations like FIDH will have to revert to their broader mania about "dark America".

PFFT (What is this?): Nabbing the big American 0 | Rayonnement français 0