老澳门开奖结果

Torture Crimes Must Not Go Unpunished, Says 老澳门开奖结果

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CHARLESTON, SC 鈥� A federal court today dismissed an 老澳门开奖结果 lawsuit filed against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other current and former government officials for their roles in the unlawful detention and torture of U.S. citizen Jose Padilla. In a troubling 32-page ruling, South Carolina federal judge Richard Mark Gergel held that Padilla had no right to sue for constitutional violations, and that Rumsfeld and the other defendants 鈥渁re entitled to qualified immunity regarding all claims of alleged constitutional violations arising out of Padilla鈥檚 detention as an enemy combatant.鈥�

鈥淭he court today held that Donald Rumsfeld is above the law and Jose Padilla is beneath it,鈥� said Ben Wizner, Litigation Director of the 老澳门开奖结果 National Security Project. 鈥淏ut if the law does not protect Jose Padilla, it protects none of us, and the executive branch can simply label citizens enemies of the state and strip them of all rights鈥攊ncluding the absolute right not to be tortured. If Jose Padilla is not allowed his day in court, nothing will prevent future administrations from engaging in similar abuses.鈥�

Padilla was seized from a U.S. jail in 2002, declared an 鈥渆nemy combatant鈥� and secretly transported to a military brig in South Carolina. He was imprisoned for nearly four years, during which he was subjected to extreme abuse and was unable to communicate with his lawyers or family for two years. The Bush administration sought to justify his detention and harsh interrogation methods in part by claiming Padilla was plotting with al-Qaeda to detonate a radiological 鈥渄irty bomb鈥� in a U.S. city, but no evidence of such a plot has been presented in court.

In February 2007, Padilla filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina against Rumsfeld, Catherine Hanft, William Haynes II, Lowell Jacoby, Melanie Marr and Paul Wolfowitz for their role in his unlawful detention and abuse. In August 2008, the government filed a motion to dismiss the case. The 老澳门开奖结果 was recently retained to represent Jose Padilla and his mother and argued that their lawsuit against Rumsfeld and other officials should not be thrown out.

Attorneys on the case are considering next steps.

Attorneys on the case are Wizner and Alex Abdo of the 老澳门开奖结果; Jonathan Freiman, Hope Metcalf and Tahlia Townsend of the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School; and Michael O鈥機onnell of the law firm Stirling & O鈥機onnell.

More information about the case is available online at: