Spanish Legislature Moves to Block Torture Investigations

According to Spanish newspaper “El Pais” the Spanish legislature is proposing new legislation to limit the jurisdiction of the National Court of Spain. The proposal, backed by both of Spain’s two largest political parties, would limit the theory of universal jurisdiction and restrict the court’s authority to cases involving defendants present on Spanish territory, or cases where the victims are Spanish nationals.

If the legislation passes and applies to existing investigations, the majority of Guantánamo related cases now pending before the National Court in Spain would have to be dropped. There are currently three Guantánamo related cases before the National Court. The first involves five former Guantánamo detainees that alleged they were tortured while in U.S. custody, a second involving rendition flights that may have stopped over in Spain, and the third against the “authors” of the torture program, namely Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo, David Addington, Jay Bybee, William Haynes and Douglas Feith.

In the case of the five torture victims, all of them are Spanish residents and one is in fact a Spanish citizen — his case could potentially survive the legislature’s current attempt to curb the National Court’s jurisdiction. Hamed Abderrahman Ahmed is a 30-year-old Muslim from the Spanish enclave of Ceuta adjoining northern Morocco, and was held in Guantánamo for two years. The Spanish press refers to him as “The Spanish Taliban.”

The timing and nature of the proposal would suggest that it is specifically designed to derail the investigations into the U.S. torture program. The Spanish government has already demonstrated its hostility to the investigation. In April, Spanish Attorney General Conde-Pumpido recommended to the National Court that it drop the case against the torture program authors, going so far as to deride the complaint as a fraud. The National Court nevertheless decided to continue investigating the matter, and it is currently assigned to Judge Eloy Velasco.

The case is currently on hold. Under the relevant provisions of the Convention Against Torture –- signed by former President Reagan — Spain can only exercise jurisdiction in the case if the United States itself refuses to investigate or prosecute the acts itself. The U.S. government can immediately stop the Spanish investigation by simply initiating its own investigation. As a result and as a necessary first step, Judge Velasco recently sent a letter to the U.S. government inquiring as to the status of any U.S. investigations into the torture program. To date, there does not appear to have been any direct response to Judge Velasco’s letter, and it is unclear how long Judge Velasco is willing to wait. It may be that the legislature’s recent action is the response to Judge Velasco’s letter, and the Spanish government intends to block Judge Velasco’s investigation while he is waiting for the U.S. government to respond.

My translation of the article can be found below, with the usual caveats about legal translation being difficult, and that I don’t speak Spain Spanish. Also as usual, corrections and clarifications are welcomed and encouraged.

May 19, 2009

The Congress of Deputies is expected to limit Spanish judges activities outside of Spain. The legislature will approve new limits to the universal jurisdiction of the National Courts of Spain, such that it will only be able to pursue cases outside Spanish territory when there are Spanish nationals affected by the case, according to a proposed resolution described by Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, a spokesperson for the People’s Party (PP), and which, according to other reports, has been also accepted by Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party (PSOE).

The proposed legislation states its purpose as “limiting the exercise of universal jurisdiction to only those cases that have some nexus to the Spanish courts, requiring a nexus between them, whether it be the current presence of the accused in Spain, or the Spanish nationality of the victim, and to establish the subordinate nature of universal jurisdiction, and clarifying that the investigation of a crime in a foreign country should be real and not symbolic* [literally translated “fictitious”, but believe “symbolic” better captures the meaning – Ed.]

To secure the support of the PSOE, the PP has agreed to withdraw a proposed amendment to Article 23 of the Organic Law of the Judicial Branch (which covers international war crimes). This way, it will be the Government that sends to Congress the proposed legislation. The initial language proposed that for a cause “to be recognized by the Spanish Courts, it should be established that the potential defendants can be found in Spain, or that victims of Spanish nationality exist, and that in every case the country where the acts are alleged to have been committed has not initiated any prosecution or investigation of the covered criminal acts.”

The PP proposal would also modify the list of crimes that could be pursued in the National Court of Spain, adding “crimes against humanity” and deleting the counterfeiting of foreign currency.

The National Court matter remains the only active criminal investigation into the U.S. torture program at Guantánamo Bay.

Original text of the article:

El pleno del Congreso de los Diputados tiene previsto poner coto hoy a la actuación de los jueces españoles en el extranjero. La Cámara aprobará la limitación de la jurisdicción universal de la Audiencia Nacional, de forma que sólo podrá perseguir delitos fuera del territorio nacional cuando haya españoles afectados en el caso, según una propuesta de resolución de la portavoz del PP, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, que ha aceptado el PSOE, según fuentes populares.

La propuesta asegura que se trata de "vincular la jurisdicción universal a los casos en los que haya un punto de conexión con los tribunales españoles; exigir un punto de conexión con la jurisdicción española, bien la localización de los responsables en España o bien la nacionalidad española de la víctima y establecer el principio de subsidiariedad de la jurisdicción universal, aclarando que la investigación del delito en el país extranjero debe ser real y no ficticia".

El PP ha aceptado retirar la nueva redacción que proponía del artículo 23 de la Ley Orgánica del Poder Judicial (el que recoge los delitos de justicia universal) para cerrar el acuerdo con el PSOE. Así, será el Gobierno el que envíe al Congreso el proyecto de ley. El texto inicial aseguraba que "para que puedan conocer los tribunales españoles deberá quedar acreditado que sus presuntos responsables se encuentran en España o que existen víctimas de nacionalidad española y, en todo caso, que en el país del lugar donde se cometieron los hechos delictivos o en el seno de un tribunal internacional no se ha iniciado causa penal que suponga una investigación y una persecución efectiva, en su caso, de tales hechos punibles".

Esa propuesta del PP modificaba también el capítulo de delitos que serían competencia de la Audiencia Nacional en el extranjero para incluir el de "lesa humanidad" y excluir el de falsificación de moneda.