Some 80 detainees of Guantanamo, who are seen as hardened terrorists should be tried in US criminal courts and set free if acquitted, said The Times in an editorial yesterday. Excerpts:
One of Barack Obama’s early campaign promises was to close Guantánamo, where 255 foreign detainees are still held as “unlawful combatants”. He argued, persuasively, that the detention center at the US base in Cuba violated basic principles of American justice, had caused rifts with America’s allies and had become a powerful recruiting sergeant for Islamist extremists around the world. Few Americans now disagree. Even the Bush administration, which argued forcefully that the detainees captured in the war on terror represented a continuing danger to American lives and security, has been forced to modify its stance. It has suffered repeated reverses at the hands of US courts and judges, including the Supreme Court, which ruled in June that the men do not fall outside US legal jurisdiction and has allowed them to challenge their imprisonment in US civilian courts.
Already in 2006 the court struck down proposals to try foreign detainees by special military tribunals, in a landmark case brought by Salim Hamdan, Osama Bin Laden’s former driver. And last week a US military judge at the base threw out the military prosecutor’s evidence against an Afghan detainee because it had been obtained under coercion.
There remain about 80 detainees, however, who are seen as hardened terrorists. They should be put on trial. It may be hard to convict them, especially if evidence obtained under torture overseas is not admitted. Obama will come under pressure to set up new hybrid criminal-military courts. He should resist the idea. Not only might these be unworkable, but they would still be seen as kangaroo courts. The men should be tried in criminal courts and set free if acquitted. They can still be watched. But justice must be served.
