Relatives of victims of US drone attacks in Pakistan file complaint with police, seeking arrest of retired CIA official

Relatives of victims of a covert US drone war against Al-Qaeda in Pakistan on Monday filed a complaint with police in the capital, seeking the arrest of a now retired CIA official.

"We have lodged the complaint for (issuance) of international arrest warrants for John A. Rizzo, a CIA official," over the killings of civilians, Mirza Shahzad Akbar told reporters at a press conference.

The document called on Interpol and the United States to enforce an arrest warrant against Rizzo, whom it says was until recently general counsel to the CIA and claims "the accused can be tried in Islamabad". It accused Rizzo of conspiracy to wage a war of aggression, to commit murder and various other crimes, including crimes against humanity.

"Rizzo worked with the agency as one of their legal counsels from 1970s and was in that position at the time of the initial attacks on Pakistan sovereign territory (in 2004)," it said. "At CIA, one of his roles was to approve a list of persons to be killed every month in Pakistan by CIA using unmanned aerial vehicles and he had already confessed of his crime publicly," it added.

Akbar has been something of a legal campaigner in Pakistan against the CIA. He also represents a tribesman seeking $500 million in compensation from the CIA after his son and brother were killed by a drone.

Akbar said he held out little hope that Pakistani authorities would cooperate with an arrest warrant, suspecting "they have fully connived with the US," in reference to US leaked cables that pointed to cooperation on drones.