Torture allegations against former US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was rejected by a federal judge Tuesday.

According to a report from CNN, US District Judge Thomas F. Hogan rejected a lawsuit filed on behalf of nine former prisoners in US military custody in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The reason of the dismissal, said Hogan, is that Rumsfeld cannot be held personally accountable for actions taken in connection with his government job.

The lawsuit contends the plaintiffs were beaten, suspended upside down from the ceiling by chains, urinated on, shocked, sexually humiliated, burned, locked inside boxes and subjected to mock executions.

It accuses Rumsfeld and other US government officials of being personally responsible for approving torture techniques and violating the US Constitution.

The former detainees who filed the lawsuit said they were all eventually released from detention and never charged with any crime or wrongdoing.

The suit seeks compensatory damages and a judicial declaration that the legal rights of the prisoners were violated under the Constitution, the Geneva accords and other international law.

Although allegations in the suit may be the equivalent of war crimes, it is a civil case, not a criminal one.

Because according to US laws, only the US government is empowered to prosecute war crimes in criminal court or before a military court.

The case is an attempt to have US officials held accountable for alleged abuse of Iraqi and Afghan civilians who were never held as enemy combatants or charged with any crime.

(Xinhua News Agency March 28, 2007)