By Karla E General
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, United States – Judge Baltasar Garzon, an investigating magistrate at the National Court in Madrid, said he would investigate allegations made by four detainees – Hamed Abderrahman Ahmed, Lahcen Ikassrien, Jamiel Abdul Latif al Banna and Omar Deghayes – who were held at Guantanamo Bay Detention Center during the Bush administration’s reign without charges. The investigation was sparked by torture complaints from the former detainees, who alleged that they had been sexually abused and beaten “under the authority of personnel from the U.S. Army.”

In his ruling, Garzon said he will probe the “perpetrators, the instigators, the necessary collaborators and accomplices” to crimes of torture at the prison, at the U.S. naval base in Southern Cuba. Garzon also noted that recently-declassified CIA documents by the Obama Administration “have revealed what was previously a suspicion: the existence of an authorized and systematic program of torture and mistreatment of persons deprived of their freedom,” that defies international conventions.

Since 2005, Spain has assumed the principle of universal jurisdiction in cases of crimes against humanity, genocide, and terrorism. However, it is only authorized to proceed when the cases are not already subject to prosecution by the country involved.

Garzon is well-known for his use of international human rights laws to prosecute torturers from the Argentinian military dictatorships and his attempt to extradite Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet from Britain on charges of torture and genocide.