GENEVA (AP) — A U.N. panel began grilling American officials Wednesday over the U.S. government’s compliance with a key anti-torture treaty, raising a series of alleged violations since the 9/11 attacks.
At the start of a two-day hearing, Alessio Bruni of Italy, one of the panel’s chief investigators, told the high-level U.S. delegation that it must answer for alleged violations ranging from CIA rendition at so-called black sites to police brutality and Guantanamo Bay conditions. He asked what concrete measures have been taken to implement President Barack Obama’s “clear” directives against torture.
A day earlier, the committee took private testimony from death penalty experts, anti-torture activists, former Guantanamo Bay detainee Murat Kurnaz and the parents of Michael Brown, the victim in the Ferguson, Missouri, shooting case that has riveted a nation. A decision is expected later this month about whether Ferguson officer Darren Wilson, who is white, will face criminal charges for fatally shooting Brown, 18, who was black and unarmed.
