Contradicting a series of international law decisions by multiple national and international tribunals, and citing a missive from the French Foreign Ministry, a French court has ruled that ministerial immunity against torture charges persists past the minister's retirement.
Based on this dramatically deviant assertion by the French Foreign Ministry, the French court of first instance dismissed the torture charges filed against Donald Rumsfeld in France.
Details on what happened and how it deviates from international law as it is commonly understood at the Center for Constitutional Rights, France in Violation of Law Grants Donald Rumsfeld Immunity, Dismisses Torture Complaint.
Is this (pro-US) French President Nicolas Sarkozy's doing? It certainly seems an odd decision for Bernard Kouchner, the former socialist and co-founder of Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) turned Foreign Minister.
It also seems like the sort of decision a decent court system would overturn on appeal.
Perhaps the French Court realized there were any number of still-living French ex-ministers who it had no desire to see brought up on charges relating to Algeria?
If it isn’t a “decent court system”, why should they have jurisdiction in the first place?
So France is out, it still leaves quite a few other countries where Rumsfeld can be brought to court.