The United States said it will not prosecute anyone for the deaths of two prisoners in CIA custody who may have endured torture.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Durham cited unspecified "statutes of limitations and jurisdictional provisions" of unnamed statutes before reaching the conclusion that he could not build a successful case, according to the Department of Justice.
Attorney General Eric Holder announced that nonprosecution decision in a statement Thursday.
"Based on the fully developed factual record concerning the two deaths, the department has declined prosecution because the admissible evidence would not be sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt," he said in the statement.
Melina Milazzo, a lawyer with Human Rights First, cast doubt on that explanation.
"It's shocking that the department's review of hundreds of instances of torture and abuse will fail to hold even one person accountable," Milazzo said in a statement.
Although Holder did not identify the dead prisoners in his statement, previous reports identify the men as Gul Rahman and Manadel al-Jamadi.
Rahman died in "near-freezing temperatures at a secret C.I.A. prison in Afghanistan known as the Salt Pit," and al-Jamadi's "corpse was photographed packed in ice and wrapped in plastic," according to The New York Times.
Read more: http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/08/31/49870.htm
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Durham cited unspecified "statutes of limitations and jurisdictional provisions" of unnamed statutes before reaching the conclusion that he could not build a successful case, according to the Department of Justice.
Attorney General Eric Holder announced that nonprosecution decision in a statement Thursday.
"Based on the fully developed factual record concerning the two deaths, the department has declined prosecution because the admissible evidence would not be sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt," he said in the statement.
Melina Milazzo, a lawyer with Human Rights First, cast doubt on that explanation.
"It's shocking that the department's review of hundreds of instances of torture and abuse will fail to hold even one person accountable," Milazzo said in a statement.
Although Holder did not identify the dead prisoners in his statement, previous reports identify the men as Gul Rahman and Manadel al-Jamadi.
Rahman died in "near-freezing temperatures at a secret C.I.A. prison in Afghanistan known as the Salt Pit," and al-Jamadi's "corpse was photographed packed in ice and wrapped in plastic," according to The New York Times.
Read more: http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/08/31/49870.htm
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