And You Thought Guantánamo Was Bad

Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Amin Al Bakri: Seized in Thailand, held in Bagram

Four prisoners at the U.S. detention center at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan are asking to be given the same right to a fair trial as the prisoners at Guantánamo. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Guantánamo detainees have a constitutional right to challenge their detention in civilian courts. The Bush administration maintained that Bagram detainees do not have the same right because Afghanistan, unlike Cuba, is a field of active warfare. However, the four prisoners in question, two Yemenis, an Afghan and a Tunisian, were actually seized in other countries and flown to Afghanistan. As U.S. District Court Judge John Bates put it to the federal prosecutors, “What evidence is there to believe they would return to the battlefield? They were not on the battlefield to begin with.” Human Rights Watch estimates that as many as 20 Bagram prisoners out of 600 are in a similar position as the four petitioners. Some human rights activists worry that when President Obama closes Guantánamo, he will just move some of the prisoners to Bagram.

 
Out With the Old Gitmo, In With the New? (by Christopher Weaver, ProPublica)
Afghanistan (AllGov)

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