25 January 2012 Currently, two investigations are pending before the Audiencia Nacional, the Spanish National Court, both related to incidents of systematic torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees that occurred in the context of US interrogation and detention policies after 2001.

In March 2009 a criminal complaint was filed against six former US officials alleging their accountability for violations of international law, including war crimes and torture. The crimes that the “Bush Six” are accused of having aided and abetted include torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949. The alleged crimes have been committed at US detention facilities at Guantánamo and at other locations.

In October 2009 the Spanish Senate restricted country’s extraterritorial jurisdiction to crimes that have a demonstrated link with Spain and are not investigated or prosecuted by another competent country or international tribunal. Nonetheless, as the ECCHR and CCR demonstrate in their joint opinion from April 2010, the “Bush Six” case clearly meets these criteria as (a) the victim that filed the criminal complaint – Hamed Abderrahman Ahmed – is a Spanish citizen; and (b) there has been no effective investigation or prosecution into the crimes alleged to date, nor is there likely to be any such investigation in the near future.

In the expert opinion submitted jointly by the New York based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and ECCHR to the Audiencia Nacional in January 2011, both organizations show how the knowingly flawed legal advice provided by the defendants on (a) applicability of the Geneva Conventions to the conflict with Al Qaeda and Taliban, and (b) legality of specific interro-gation techniques, provided a basis for the commission of international crimes.

In April 2009, Judge Baltasar Garzón opened a preliminary investigation into what he termed “an authorized and systematic plan of torture and ill-treatment on persons deprived of their freedom without any charge and without the basic rights of any detainee, set out and required by applicable international conventions” in US detention facilities. The preliminary investigation did not name any potential defendants. In May 2010, Judge Garzón has been suspended from the case and Judge Ruz replaced him. Requests by CCR and ECCHR for being admitted to this case on behalf of two former Guantánamo detainees are pending.

In January 2011, CCR and ECCHR submitted to Audiencia Nacional a dossier regarding the former commander of Guantánamo, Geoffrey Miller, providing evidence that demonstrates his role in the torture of detainees at Guantánamo and in Iraq. Based on the information in the dossier, CCR and ECCHR request that a subpoena be issued for Miller to testify.