UN panel seeks US, UK's explanation on abuse

The chairman of the UN Committee against Torture, Fernando Marino Menendez, revealed that Washington was three years late in submitting to compulsory international scrutiny measures taken to prevent torture and mistreatment in the United States.

The 135 countries that have ratified the International Convention Against Torture are obliged to report to the United Nations committee every four years. It then holds public hearings cross-examining officials from the country.

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The panel of 10 experts oversees the treaty, which outlaws torture or cruel humane and degrading treatment.

The United States last appeared before the committee in 1999, and had failed to submit a report due in 2001, Marino Menendez told journalists.

In a letter to the US ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Kevin Moley, the committee demanded that Washington submit its periodic report by October 1.

"This report must contain up to date information on the situation on places of detention in Iraq," the letter read out in Spanish by Marino Menendez said.