Anti-torture protesters in France believe that former US defense secretary Rumsfeld fled over the border to Germany to escape arrest.

In France, Donald Rumsfeld, the former US secretary of defense, is facing criminal charges of "ordering and authorizing" torture of prisoners in the American-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Activists in France greeted Rumsfeld, shouting "murderer" and "war criminal" at the breakfast meeting venue.

Anti-torture protesters in France believe that Rumsfeld fled over the open border to Germany, where a war crimes case against him was dismissed by a federal court.

But activists point out that under the Schengen agreement that ended border checkpoints across a large part of the European Union, French law enforcement agents are allowed to cross the border into Germany in pursuit of a fleeing fugitive.

RZS/BGH