COPENHAGEN, Aug 25 (AFP) - Denmark on Wednesday reiterated its call for a US response to allegations by a Danish interpreter in Afghanistan that American soldiers tortured and murdered prisoners there.
"We have already written to Washington in June to have their version of the facts. But since we have yet to receive a response, we contacted the American authorities again by telephone on Wednesday, (and they) assured us that a response was on its way," said Niels Christiansen, deputy chief of Denmark's judge advocate corps, which is handling the Danish investigation.
A Danish interpreter working with the US forces in Afghanistan filed suit against the Danish Ministry of Defense last December demanding compensation for the psychological distress he had suffered by witnessing the soldiers torture and murder prisoners there.
Danish Defense Minister Soeren Gade told the parliamentary committee in June that the interpreter had also been present at three or four interrogations of Danish citizen Slimane Hadj Abderrahmane at the US base in Kandahar before he was shipped off to the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Abderrahmane was transferred to Guantanamo Bay in February 2002. He remained there for 747 days before being freed without charge last February and deported to Denmark.
"We have interrogated the interpreter, and as soon as we receive a response from the Americans, we'll create a report on this affair and draw the obvious conclusions," Christiansen told AFP.
"If what the interpreter said has not been reported by the Danish forces in Afghanistan, we expect that disciplinary measures against those in charge who did not carry out their duty" will be imposed, he added.
The judge advocate corps' report is scheduled to be handed over to the Defense Minister and to the military top brass sometime in September.