Death Row at Guantanamo

Ivo Skoric vze3c9dm at verizon.net
Sat May 31 19:47:10 CEST 2003


The US is learning that keeping prisoners is a tiresome and 
thankless task. So, they are planning the 'final solution' of a sort for 
the Guantanamo Bay Camp.
ivo

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Subject: Death Row at Guantanamo


US plans death camp

The Courier Mail (Australia)

http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,6494000%255E401,00.html

May 26, 2003

THE US has floated plans to turn Guantanamo Bay into a
death camp, with its own death row and execution
chamber.

Prisoners would be tried, convicted and executed
without leaving its boundaries, without a jury and
without right of appeal, The Mail on Sunday newspaper
reported yesterday. The plans were revealed by Major-
General Geoffrey Miller, who is in charge of 680
suspects from 43 countries, including two Australians.

The suspects have been held at Camp Delta on Cuba
without charge for 18 months.

General Miller said building a death row was one plan.
Another was to have a permanent jail, with possibly an
execution chamber.

The Mail on Sunday reported the move is seen as logical
by the US, which has been attacked worldwide for
breaching the Geneva Convention on prisoners of war
since it established the camp at a naval base to hold
alleged terrorists from Afghanistan.

But it has horrified human rights groups and lawyers
representing detainees.

They see it as the clearest indication America has no
intention of falling in line with internationally
recognised justice.

The US has already said detainees would be tried by
tribunals, without juries or appeals to a higher court.
Detainees will be allowed only US lawyers.

British activist Stephen Jakobi, of Fair Trials Abroad,
said: "The US is kicking and screaming against any
pressure to conform with British or any other kind of
international justice."

American law professor Jonathan Turley, who has led US
civil rights group protests against the military
tribunals planned to hear cases at Guantanamo Bay,
said: "It is not surprising the authorities are
building a death row because they have said they plan
to try capital cases before these tribunals.

"This camp was created to execute people. The
administration has no interest in long-term prison
sentences for people it regards as hard-core
terrorists."

Britain admitted it had been kept in the dark about the
plans.

A Downing St spokesman said: "The US Government is well
aware of the British Government's position on the death
penalty."

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