by Sarutama » Thu Jul 20, 2006 2:46 pm
But Abu Gharib is, of course, just a few bad apples. Not business as usual at all.<br><br><br><br><br>CHICAGO (Reuters) - Using electric shock, beatings and suffocation, Chicago police tortured criminal suspects into giving confessions during the 1970s and 1980s, the authors of a report said on Wednesday.<br><br>But the abuse inflicted on suspects by Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge -- who has since been fired, lives in Florida and receives a full pension -- and detectives under his command occurred too long ago to pursue criminally, a four-year investigation concluded.<br><br>"We have concluded that there was violence and there was violence on more than one person," special prosecutor Robert Boyle told reporters.<br><br>"We have also concluded ... that based on our investigation, that if the statute of limitations had not run, we would seek a criminal indictment in three cases" from the 1980s.<br><br>In some cases, suspects were subjected to death threats and fake Russian roulette, lawyers representing suspects have said.<br><br>Earlier this year, the<br>United Nations Committee Against Torture asked for a federal investigation of Chicago police torture, following an appeal from lawyers who have sued Burge and the city on behalf of dozens of suspects.<br><br>The U.N. committee said the United States "should promptly, thoroughly and impartially investigate all allegations of acts of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by law enforcement personnel and bring perpetrators to justice."<br><br>Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, who headed the local prosecutor's office during part of the period when the torture occurred, has been criticized for not investigating Burge and his men. The special prosecutor's report cited a former head of the police department for failing to look into torture allegations.<br><br>Lawyers asked the local U.S. attorney to prosecute Burge. A spokesman for prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald declined to comment. <p></p><i></i>
