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The US experience : exceeding legal boundaries incountering terrorism - Paris, 25-28 January 2017Programme : background-event-usIntroductionFollowing the 9/11 attacks the US established a so called enhanced interrogation program approved by the highest levels of the Bush Administration, which led to US officials committing torture in a number of overseas detention facilities. Although President Obamaended the program, no prosecutions or any form of accountability for the crimes was undertaken in the US. With President-elect Donald Trump about to take office in the White House there is now a real danger that we will see a return of torture.In France, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) from New York are working on the ongoing investigation into the torture of French citizens in Guantanamo Bay Detention Center. Last year a summons was issued against former Guantanamo Commander Geoffrey Miller for March 2016, the first move of its kind anywhere in the world. Further investigative steps havenow been applied for by William Bourdon, the lawyer acting in this case.ECCHR and CCR, together with the FIDH, are now bringing some of the most high-profile and outspoken critics of the US torture program to Paris for a number of expert talks and apublic event.The Case French Court (Cour d’Appel de Paris - Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris) investigation of US TortureIn November 2002, ECCHR cooperating lawyer William Bourdon together with the families of two former Guantánamo detainees Nizar Sassi and Mourad Benchellali lodged a criminalcomplaint based on claims of torture, abuse and arbitrary detention. Since then, French authorities have been investigating the US torture program.In February 2014, CCR and ECCHR submitted an expert report in the case, detailing former Guantánamo Commander Geoffrey Miller’s individual criminal responsibility for prisonerabuse at the detention facility amounting to torture under international law. The parties requested that Miller be questioned as a suspect in the investigation proceedings. ECCHR andthe CCR also submitted documents explaining Miller’s role, while commander of Guantánamo, in the overall command structure within the United States government. The organizations added background information on the torture program and the implementation of interrogation techniques at Guantánamo that violate international law, based on the findings of the 2008 Senate Armed Services Committee report on detainee torture and abuse.On 1 March 2016, Miller was a no-show in a French court. (...) Suite dans la version PDF : background-event-us