Obama to resume military trials for Gitmo detainees
President Barack Obama is to resume controversial military trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees in a move attacked by human rights activists.
The White House confirmed today that the Bush-era military commission system - which was suspended by Mr Obama within days of taking office – would be revived for some inmates at the detention camp.
New legal protections will be put into the process, but campaign groups dismissed this as merely “tinkering” with a “discredited” and “unfair” system.
It is the second time within a week that Mr Obama has disappointed liberals. On Wednesday, he announced that he intended to block the court-ordered release of photos showing the abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan at the hands of US troops.
A 120-day halt to the war crimes trials was ordered on January 21 for a review of the process to be carried out. It affected 13 detainees already in the tribunal system including five men charged over the September 11, 2001 attacks.
These trials will remain suspended for a further four months while the administration brings in new safeguards for the system.
These include restrictions on hearsay evidence and a ban on all statements obtained through “cruel, inhuman and degrading” interrogation methods. This would include evidence gained through the waterboarding of suspects.
Detainees will also be given more rights over choosing their own military counsel.
President Obama said: “These reforms will begin to restore the commissions as a legitimate forum for prosecution, while bringing them in line with the rule of law.”
But campaign groups insisted that the system should be scrapped in its entirety.
Amnesty International’s USA researcher Rob Freer said: “You cannot revamp a system that is, in essence, unfair.
“The US has a functioning civilian criminal justice system that is used to dealing with complex trials. This is the system that the US administration should be using for any Guantanamo detainee it decides to prosecute.
“Military commissions were conceived and developed as part of an unlawful detention regime, to facilitate convictions while minimising judicial scrutiny of the executive’s treatment of detainees.
“No amount of tinkering with their rules can fix this discredited system. The commissions – which President Obama has himself described as an ’enormous failure’ – should be scrapped.”
