Reprieve denounces provisions in pending legislation to end access to courts for Guantánamo prisoners
14.09.06
The United States Congress is expected to vote within days on legislation that would deny the prisoners in Guantánamo Bay and elsewhere in the world access to the courts. Reprieve, a London-based charity that represents 36 prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, denounces this legislation. The legislation threatens to strip all Guantánamo prisoners of the right to a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, a route to access the courts that has been in place since the Middle Ages and is enshrined in the United States Constitution. The writ of habeas corpus requires the state to justify to a court why someone is imprisoned.
“Congress is at a crossroads: either they will honor the fundamental right that everyone must be able to challenge a government’s attempt to take away their freedom, or they will cave in to the politics of fear espoused by President Bush. The Supreme Court has said that every prisoner in Guantánamo has the right to challenge his imprisonment in court. If that right is taken away, these prisoners will languish in prison for years – innocent or not. If a prisoner is abused, he will have no recourse. That goes against everything a democracy should stand for. It is un-American,” Zachary Katznelson, Senior Counsel at Reprieve stated.
The legislation currently being considered, in separate bills proposed by President Bush and Senators Warner and Graham, would apply the December 30, 2005 Detainee Treatment Act retroactively. That Act barred all new habeas lawsuits for prisoners in Guantánamo, but let continue lawsuits filed before it took effect. The new legislation would wipe out all existing lawsuits.
459 prisoners are currently held in Guantánamo. Of those, only 10 have ever been charged with a crime. Not one person has had a trial.
“No one maintains that everyone in Guantánamo, Bagram or elsewhere is innocent, but some people certainly are. Mistakes were made in the fog of war. That alone is not something to be faulted. What brings America shame is that four and a half years later, there is no system in place to rectify those mistakes. If Congress takes away the right to go to court, no system will ever be there for these men. Congress must allow the men to go to court,” Zachary Katznelson, Senior Counsel at Reprieve stated.
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