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| October 01, 2006 | Sunday | Ramazan 7, 1427 |
‘Guantanamo Bay prisoners political nightmare for US’
ISLAMABAD, Sept 30: An American lawyer representing the Guantanamo Bay prisoners said on Saturday that the prisoners were proving “a political nightmare” to the United States which wants to “unload” them.
Lawyer Zachary Katznelson called for mounting public pressure on the governments of the home countries of the prisoners to bring them back home.
He made the remarks at the inaugural session of a workshop organised by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and Amnesty International (AI) on “Enforced Disappearances in the War on Terror”.
A report released by the AI on the eve of the two-day workshop said that more than 85 per cent of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay were arrested not by the US forces but by Pakistan and the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan at a time when rewards of up to 5,000 dollars were paid for every “terrorist” handed over to the US.
Mr Katznelson said the Central Intelligence Agency and other US agencies were holding 14,000 suspected terrorists in secret detention centres across the world.
He described Guantanamo prison as “a surreal place” where violence was used “continuously” but had failed to break down the prisoners.
“They have retained their mental strength because they know they have not done any wrong,” Katznelson said.
About 300 Guantanamo prisoners have been released so without being charged. What the remaining 459 prisoners there wanted most was to get a chance to clear their names and rejoin their families.
Katznelson said the US Supreme Court had ruled that the Geneva Convention applied to Guantanamo prisoners but “the wide open” definition of enemy combatant made the task of their lawyers difficult.
A prisoner is charged with assisting the enemy of the US but is denied evidence on the plea that the information is classified. Yet he could be pronounced guilty on the basis of that information, said the lawyer who purposely mentioned to his Muslim audience that he is a Jew.
“Keep talking about it (denial of justice). We will win ultimately,” he said.
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