April 16 (Bloomberg) -- Spain’s top prosecutor opposes pursuing a case against six former U.S. government officials including former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales over their role in alleged torture at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Chief State Prosecutor Candido Conde-Pumpido said in Madrid today he’s against starting a full investigation, a spokesman for his office said. The prosecutor’s office will give its opinion tomorrow on whether the National Court should probe whether the former officials set up a legal framework that allowed torture at the prison for accused terrorists.

That report isn’t binding and magistrate Baltasar Garzon, known for trying to put former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet on trial, will decide whether to press ahead with a criminal investigation. Spanish law allows courts to probe incidents that happened abroad in the cases of war crimes and genocide.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is seeking to improve U.S. relations, which have been strained since he pulled Spanish troops out of Iraq in 2004 after al-Qaeda bomb attacks in Madrid. Zapatero, a Socialist, met President Barack Obama on April 5 in Prague, where Obama said he was happy to call Zapatero a “friend.”

Prosecutors in the past have opposed going after overseas officials, said Gonzalo Boye, the lawyer who filed the case on behalf of a prisoners’ rights group. Boye said in an interview yesterday that the six former officials manipulated international law and created a “legal limbo, that doesn’t exist.”

Feith, Yoo

The five other former U.S. officials targeted in the Boye’s complaint are: David Addington, who was former Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff; William J. Haynes, who was the Defense Department’s general counsel; Douglas Feith, a former Pentagon undersecretary for policy; Jay Bybee, a former assistant attorney general, and John Yoo, a former Justice Department lawyer.

Feith, in an April 3 article in the Wall Street Journal described the premise of the case as a “national insult with harmful implications,” and said the complaint’s factual assertions showed “general sloppiness.” Yoo didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment today.

Former President George W. Bush has said the U.S. never engaged in torture. Former Vice President Dick Cheney in January defended the administration’s interrogation techniques.

Obama on Jan. 22 ordered the Guantanamo prison closed and banned use of the harshest interrogation techniques.

Spain’s National Court has explored alleged crimes in Tibet, Gaza and Iraq. In the current complaint, three alleged victims were Spanish citizens and two Spanish residents, strengthening the case, Boye said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Emma Ross-Thomas in Madrid at erossthomas@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 16, 2009 09:38 EDT