Sunnis call for international probe into Iraq torture allegations News
Sunnis call for international probe into Iraq torture allegations

[JURIST] The Iraqi Islamic Party [official website; GlobalSecurity profile], one of Iraq's largest Sunni parties, on Wednesday demanded an international investigation into allegations that security forces illegally detained and tortured suspected insurgents [JURIST report] at secret jails in Baghdad. Omar Heikal said that the majority Shiites were trying to suppress minority Sunnis before the December 15 parliamentary elections and called for the "United Nations, the Arab League and humanitarian bodies to denounce these clear human rights violations, and we demand a fair, international probe so that all those who are involved in such practices will get their just punishment." The demands come a day after Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] confirmed that more than 173 prisoners were found malnourished and possibly tortured by government security forces and announced that the Iraqi government will investigate the alleged abuse. AP has more.

1:17 PM ET – Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture [official website], also called Wednesday for an independent investigation into torture allegations at US and Iraqi detention centers. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Guiteau tried for assassinating US President Garfield

On November 14, 1881, Charles Guiteau went on trial for the assassination of US President James A. Garfield. The trial of Guiteau pointed to problems with nineteenth-century law's treatment of insanity; Guiteau's trial is also problematic in retrospect as Garfield's death was immediately attributable not to Guiteau, but to Garfield's doctors who—before sterilization was well understood—repeated probed his wound with unwashed hands while searching for an embedded bullet.