Amnesty: 14,000 detained in Iraq without trial
The detention of thousands of prisoners without charge in Iraq could
increase the risk of torture in jails, Amnesty International has warned in a
new report.
Up to 14,000 people are being held by American and British forces without
charge or trial in breach of international law, the human rights
organisation said.
More than 200 have been imprisoned for over two years, with nearly four
thousand imprisoned for 12 months or more.
The number held in Iraq is almost 30 times the 490 held without charge or
trial at the controversial Guantanamo Bay base, Amnesty said in its new
report, Beyond Abu Ghraib: Detention and torture in Iraq.
It criticises American and British forces for justifying internments on the
basis of "secretive and unaccountable procedures that detainees are unable
to effectively challenge".
"After the horrors of life under Saddam and then the fresh horror of US
prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, it is shocking to discover that the
Multinational Forces are detaining thousands of people without charge or
trial," Kate Allen, Amnesty International UK Director, said.
"Not only have there been recent cases of prisoners being tortured in
detention, but to hold this huge number of people without basic legal
safeguards is a gross dereliction of responsibility on the part of both the
US and UK forces."
According to the report, interned prisoners are denied visits from lawyers
or relatives for the first 60 days of their detention.
The report comes a month after new video and photographs emerged documenting
alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners in the now-closed Abu Ghraib detention
centre.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=11LSLHCQ32G3BQFIQMFSFF4AVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2006/02/16/wtort16.xml
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