- Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.; Source Wikimedia Commons
Of initially 100 cases of alleged torture of detainees in secret CIA prisons, the deaths of terror suspects Gul Rahman and Manadel al-Jamadi were the last incidents under investigation. Gul Rhaman died after being shackled to a concrete wall in a CIA prison in Afghanistan in 2002. In 2003, Manadel al-Jamadi died at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. None of the 100 cases investigated led to charges.
Mr. Holder confirmed that “the department has declined prosecution because the admissible evidence would not be sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction”. The investigation was initiated after Barack Obama became President; however, the examination of possible torture cases was not carried out as extensively as announced by Obama during his pre-election campaign.
Elisa Massimo, president of Human Rights First, criticised the closing of the three-year investigation stressing that there was ample evidence of torture. She also called for Mr. Holder to give detailed reasons of why there were no charges brought.
NY Times: No Charges Filed on Harsh Tactics Used by the C.I.A.
ABC News:DOJ: No Charges in CIA Detainee Death Investigations
Guardian: Obama's justice department grants final immunity to Bush's CIA torturers
