Wednesday, October 17, 2007

US judge refuses extradition to Italy on torture grounds

Another US judge has unexpectedly weighed into the torture debate by refusing to extradite a convicted drug trafficker because he would be subject to a tough prison regime where he would be leaned on to testify against others. Judge Sitgraves is quoted by the LA Times as saying:

"This coercion... is not related to any lawfully imposed sanction or punishment, and thus constitutes torture."

The Italians were less than impressed and mentioned one or two US failures on human rights such as the use of the death penalty and torture in Abu Ghraib and Gunatanamo Bay.

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