Rights groups to chase Bush

Former US President George W. Bush

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/164157.html

Human rights activists have pledged to be hot on the heels of former US President George W. Bush wherever he makes a trip to.

"The reach of the Convention Against Torture is wide -- this case is prepared and will be waiting for him wherever he travels next," AFP quoted Katherine Gallagher, an attorney and vice president of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), as saying on Monday.

Rights groups state that criminal complaints against Bush over alleged torture have been lodged in Geneva, Switzerland.

The former US president reportedly had to call off his trip to Switzerland because of the risk that he could be taken in to be questioned for war crimes and torture.

"Swiss law requires the presence of the torturer on Swiss soil before a preliminary investigation can be opened," said the Paris-based FIDH along with the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights and the Centre for Constitutional Rights.

A statement issued by the rights groups pointed out that "When Bush cancelled his trip to avoid prosecution, the human rights groups who prepared the complaints made (them) public and announced that the Bush torture indictment would be waiting wherever he travels next."

New York-based Human Rights Watch has said that US officials themselves should file criminal charges against Bush.

"The US government should take the lead to investigate former US President George W. Bush and other senior officials for authorizing torture of terrorism suspects rather than leaving prosecutions to other countries," the NGO said.

Waterboarding is one of the so-called harsh interrogation techniques approved during Bush's presidency to be used against prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as those held at the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Human rights groups maintain that waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning, is illegal under the Geneva Conventions.