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Lawyers Committee Urges Investigation
Into US Actions in Syrian Torture Case
NEW YORK - The White House should take immediate
action to ensure that U.S. officials are not transferring individuals
from U.S. custody to other countries to be tortured, the Lawyers
Committee for Human Rights said today.
“When it comes to U.S. policy with respect to torture,
there seems to be a gap between the rhetoric of American officials
and the reality of U.S. actions,” said Elisa Massimino,
director of the Lawyers Committee’s Washington, DC office.
Yesterday, in a major address on promoting democracy and the
values of freedom in the Middle East, President Bush cited Syria
as a country with "a legacy of torture, oppression, misery,
and ruin." Earlier this year, President Bush reaffirmed
the United States commitment to eradicating torture in a June
26 address to the United Nations. “Torture anywhere is
an affront to human dignity everywhere,” the President
said. “The United States is committed to the world-wide
elimination of torture and we are leading this fight by example."
The recent transfer of Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen who says
he was detained last year at J.F.K. airport in New York by U.S.
officials before being handed over to Syrian authorities for
questioning, raises serious concerns about whether the United
States government is meeting its legal obligation to refrain
from sending people to countries where there is a likelihood
they will be tortured. Arar said this week that he had been
tortured over a 10 - month period in Syria before Canadian consular
officials secured his release.
It is a clear violation of international law and of United
States policy not only to commit torture, but also to send someone
to a country where they would face torture.
Article 3 of the Convention on Torture, to which the United
States is a party, states:
No State Party shall expel, return ('refouler') or
extradite a person to another State where there are substantial
grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected
to torture.... For the purpose of determining whether there
are such grounds, the competent authorities shall take into
account all relevant considerations including, where applicable,
the existence in the State concerned of a consistent pattern
of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights.
U.S. treaty obligations and policy have been implemented through
regulations issued by the Department of Justice, the Department
of Homeland Security, and the State Department, that codify the
United States' commitment not to send individuals to another country
where they are likely to be tortured. Among other protections,
these binding regulations require that individuals facing deportation
or extradition be given an opportunity to be heard on the likelihood
of torture in the country to which they are facing return. The
Arar case suggests that either those procedures are not being
followed, or that they are inadequate.
“Figuring out exactly what the US role was in handing
Mr. Arar over to Syrian authorities will help assess existing
procedures designed to prevent torture,” said Massimino.
“The administration should launch an investigation immediately
that looks into, and reports publicly on, the circumstances
of this case.”
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