On November 14, 2006, eleven former Abu Ghraib detainees and one Guantanamo detainee filed a criminal complaint in Germany alleging that they were subjected to torture by the US government. The complaint asked that the German Federal Prosecutor to investigate and ultimately prosecute former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top US officials and advisors for authorizing the commission of war crimes in the US war effort. The complaint was filed invoking Germany's universal jurisdiction law, which allows the prosecution of war crimes no matter where they were carried out.

Learn more about legal action against Donald Rumsfeld and universal jurisdiction from the JURIST news archive.