Reading the 19-page verdict, Lamin said, after considering the evidence adduced
by the prosecution and submissions by both parties, the tribunal
was satisfied the eight accused were guilty of the charge and convicted as
criminals for torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of the
complainant war crime victims.
He said Bush was guilty of war crimes as he had issued orders such as a
memorandum dated Feb 7, 2002, declaring al-Qaeda prisoners were outside the
protection of the Geneva Convention, intended these orders be acted upon and
knew that the US was violating the Torture Convention and the Geneva
Convention and failed to intervene to prevent these violations.
"The prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt that accused Richard
B. Cheney, former US vice-president, had knoweldege of what was going on and in
particular, that the orders issued by Bush and Rumsfeld were issued and acted
upon," said the judge who took one and half hour to read the verdict.
Lamin said the eight accused had engaged in a web of instructions, memorandi,
directives, legal advice and action that established a common plan and purpose
joint enterprise to commit the crimes of Torture and War Crimes,
including and not limited to a common plan and purpose to commit the crimes in
relation to the ''War on Terror'' and the wars launched by the US and others in
Afghanistan and Iraq.
The tribunal also found that the accused persons were individually and
jointly liable for all crimes committed in pursuit of their common plan and
purpose under principles established by Article 6 of the Charter of the
International Military Tribunal.
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SSA NIM NAK GR