“A Berlin-based civil rights group has filed a criminal complaint to the German authorities to issue an arrest warrant for [Gina] Haspel, over claims she oversaw the torture of terrorism suspects.
Following Haspel’s promotion to CIA deputy director last year [2017], the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) updated its legal briefing requesting her arrest. …
‘As head of the secret prison in Thailand, Gina Haspel followed each day of Abu Zubaydah’s torture from Aug. 4 to 23, 2002, and she alone had the responsibility to end this torture but failed to do so,’ reads the ECCHR submission to German authorities.
If the Senate Intelligence Committee approves the country’s first female CIA director, it’s not likely to be welcomed by women’s rights activists across the world.”
– Leela Jacinto, “Trump’s New CIA Chief Pick’s Torture Past Clouds Her Future,” france24.com, March 13, 2018
Editor’s note: The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) using the principle of universal jurisdiction in Germany, filed the criminal complaint against Haspel with the German Federal Public Prosecutor (Generalbundesanwalt). It is a follow-up to an earlier complaint on the US torture program filed in Germany by ECCHR in December 2014. As of September 2022, the documents are under consideration by German prosecutors as part of a preliminary examination. See European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, “Germany: Criminal Complaint against CIA Director Gina Haspel,” ecchr.eu, accessed on September 2, 2022, for more information.