Judge considers U.S. torture case

MADRID, Spain — A high-profile Spanish judge has initiated a possible investigation of alleged torture and war crimes by six former U.S. officials who created the legal framework for interrogations at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, a senior Spanish official said Saturday.

Judge Baltasar Garzón, of Spain's highest court, requested that a prosecutor examine a complaint that inmates-rights advocates had filed against Bush administration officials last year, said the senior official, who requested anonymity.

The prosecutor will issue a recommendation on the merits of opening a case and on whether the court, the Audiencia Nacional, has jurisdiction, the official said. The prosecutor probably will respond by the end of April to Garzón, Spanish media reported Saturday.

The six former U.S. officials named in the complaint include former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales; William Haynes II, a former counsel at the Defense Department; and John Yoo, a former Justice Department lawyer, the senior official said. They are seen as the brains behind the framework of policies and legal opinions that created the Guantánamo facility, who justified harsh interrogation tactics and decided that captured al-Qaida suspects were not protected by the Geneva Conventions.

The other Americans named in the complaint are Jay Bybee, Yoo's former boss at the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel; Douglas Feith, the former undersecretary of defense for policy; and David Addington, who was the chief of staff and legal adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney.

The process in Spain will involve a number of steps and obstacles before any decision to investigate and, ultimately, issue arrest warrants.

"It must be decided whether to open a case, whether there is jurisdiction, whether any judicial action has been taken in the United States," the senior Spanish official cautioned. "If the case is opened, an investigation would be required, testimony and so on. There is a long way to go."

Some U.S. experts said that even if warrants are issued, their significance could be more symbolic than practical, and it was likely they would not lead to arrests if the six did not leave the United States.

The complaint, filed by a Spanish group called the Association for Dignity of Inmates, is based on the Geneva Conventions and the 1984 Convention Against Torture, which is binding on 145 countries, including Spain and the United States. Countries party to the torture convention are obliged to investigate torture cases, especially when a citizen has been abused.

Garzón made a name for himself with prosecutions of figures such as Osama bin Laden and Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the late Chilean dictator who was jailed in Britain as the result of an arrest warrant issued by Garzón. British authorities ultimately sent Pinochet back to Chile.

Garzón also has been an outspoken critic of the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, calling it inhumane and urging it be shut down.

Material from The New York Times is included in this report.