[imc-presse] PRESS RELEASE: Guantánamo survivor files torture complaint against Belgium (Embargoed until 11 January 2017, 11am CET)

[Anabel Bermejo Bragado]

ECCHR - European Center for constitutional and human rights

 

PRESS RELEASE 

 

Embargoed until 11 January 2017, 11am (CET)

 

Guantánamo survivor files torture complaint against Belgium 

 

Spotlight on impunity as world marks 15 years of detention at Guantánamo

 

 

Brussels/Berlin, 11 January 2017 – On behalf of Belgian citizen Mosa
Zemmouri the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (
<https://www.ecchr.eu/en/home.html> ECCHR) with its cooperation lawyers in
Belgium, Walter van Steenbrugge and Christophe Marchand today submitted a
complaint (individual communication) against Belgium to the
<http://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/cat/pages/catindex.aspx> UN Committee
against Torture in Geneva. Zemmouri was detained at the US military base in
Guantánamo Bay from 2002 to 2005, where he was subjected to brutal beatings
as well as sensory deprivation, exposure to extreme temperatures and other
severe forms of physical and psychological abuse. 

In their submission to the UN Committee, Zemmouri, the lawyers and ECCHR
argue that Belgian officials were complicit in the abuse, that Belgium knew
about the torture but failed to prevent it, and that Belgian authorities
subsequently failed to carry out adequate investigations into the crimes.  

The complaint is being filed on the 15th anniversary of the arrival of the
first detainees to Guantánamo Bay in the early days of the US
administration’s “war on terror”, the beginning of a global system of US
military and CIA torture carried out with the complicity of several states
in Europe and around the world.   

“To date none of the architects of the post-9/11 torture system – the senior
military and political figures responsible – have faced prosecution in any
jurisdiction”, said Andreas Schüller of ECCHR’s International Crimes and
Accountability Program. “We will continue to work until they are held
accountable, whether at home or abroad.” 

Today’s complaint against Belgium is part of broader efforts to uphold the
ban on torture by bringing criminal proceedings against perpetrators. In
<https://www.ecchr.eu/en/our_work/international-crimes-and-accountability/u-
s-accountability/france.html> France, ECCHR and the Center for
Constitutional Rights ( <http://ccrjustice.org/> CCR) are involved in the
ongoing investigations by Paris authorities into the torture of two French
citizens at Guantánamo. 

 

Please excuse double posting.

 

 

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Anabel Bermejo 

Media & Communications

 

European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights e.V. (ECCHR)

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D-10961 BERLIN

 

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E-Mail:  <mailto:bermejo at ecchr.eu> bermejo at ECCHR.eu

Skype: anabel.bermejo1

Twitter: @ECCHRBerlin

 

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