JEDDAH, 25 March 2003 — A lawyer defending several Saudi detainees at Guantanamo Bay urged the United States yesterday to apply the Geneva Conventions to its treatment of prisoners.
“As the United States wants its prisoners in Iraq to be treated according to the Geneva Conventions, we demand that our prisoners (at Guantanamo) receive similar treatment,” Kateb Al-Shammary said.
Shammary, who is also secretary-general of the Committee for the Defense of Guantanamo Detainees, urged US authorities to put the prisoners on trial and grant them the basic rights of defense.
About 650 men from some 40 different countries are being held without a trial at Guantanamo on suspicion of having links with Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network.
Afghanistan said on Sunday that the US military had released 19 prisoners held as Al-Qaeda or Taleban suspects in its detention center and returned them to the country.
Fazel Akbar, a spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai, said the 19 arrived in Afghanistan on Saturday after more than a year in custody.
