New Yorker Correspondent Jane Mayer and British Attorney Philippe Sands on Bush Administration Tortu

PHILIPPE SANDS: Well, Spain’s law has basically allowed its criminal courts to investigate international crimes such as torture and other international abuses for many years. That was the basis, of course, for the case brought against Senator Pinochet a decade or so ago.

The decision yesterday is merely a recommendation by the parliament to change the law and to limit its application to situations in which Spaniards are involved or the perpetrators are present on Spanish soil. It’s, as I understand it, only prospective; it only looks to the future, and so it has no effect on existing investigations.

But more to the point, in any event, the case brought against the Bush Six, the cases that Judges Velasco and Baltasar Garzon are looking at, do indeed involve individuals either of Spanish nationality or Spanish residency, so I don’t think this will have any effect for ongoing proceedings.

AMY GOODMAN: What about this pressure that’s being brought on the Spanish parliament and on everyone in Spain right now?

PHILIPPE SANDS: I think it may actually not be the case which is being investigated in relation to the Bush Six and the Guantanamo abuses, but the Israeli investigation, which has been undergoing—underway for some considerable period of time, and that has caused tremendous pressure to be brought to bear on the Spanish government from the Israeli government. And I’m not sure, to be honest—


http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/20/torture
http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2009/may/video/dnB20090520a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=00:10:14