New campaign seeks arrest of ex-CIA legal chief for drone strike ‘murders’ in Pak

Amid growing international concern over the use of drones in Pakistan, a Gandhi International Peace Award winner is leading a campaign seeking the arrest of former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) legal chief John Rizzo for approving the attacks that killed hundreds of people.

British human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith is leading the campaign of British and Pakistani lawyers, who are seeking an international arrest warrant for Rizzo. 

A first information report, the first step in seeking a prosecution of Rizzo in Pakistan, will be formally lodged early next week at a police station in Islamabad, on behalf of relatives of two people killed in drone strikes in 2009, the Guardian reports.

The report will also allege Rizzo should be charged with conspiracy to murder a large number of Pakistani citizens.

Now retired, Rizzo had admitted in an interview with the magazine Newsweek that since 2004 he had approved one drone attack order a month on targets in Pakistan.

The lawyers are also building cases against other individuals, including drone operators interviewed or photographed during organized press facilities.

Opponents of drones say that the unmanned aircraft are responsible for the deaths of up to 2,500 Pakistanis in 260 attacks since 2004.

US officials, on the other hand, claim that the vast majority of those killed were ‘militants’.