|
Headlines
Market news and breaking stories live from Dow Jones Newswires
Market Commentary
A technical analysis commentary of the major markets, only from INO
Smart Scan
A premium service, alerting you to changes in the market by web and email.
Extreme Futures / Stocks
Extreme Markets from all exchanges, updated throughout the trading day.
|
| |
|
Trade Triangle Technology, Advanced Charts, SmartScan, Trading Workshops.
The premier online video learning platform for traders.
Daily Portfolio Scan and Analysis
|
| |
|
Former Guantanamo Bay Detainee To Sue U.S. Government 165 days ago
(RTTNews) - Mohammed Jawad, one of the youngest detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay military detention facility in Cuba, is planning to sue the U.S. government for arresting him in Kabul as a minor and detaining him for almost seven years, his lawyer said Thursday.
Major Eric Montalvo, the US military lawyer who represented Mohammed Jawad during the military trial, said that his client would find it difficult to return to normal life as he was subjected to various methods of torture, including sleep deprivation and beatings, during his nearly seven years of detention at the U.S. military detention center in Cuba.
Montalvo said that he was upset "with the resistance of the US government to recognize the error of their ways," but added that there were "signs of hope here and I believe this case has precedent in that the Obama administration has recognized that there are errors".
Montalvo, who plans to represent Jawad after his retirement from the military by this month-end, urged the Afghan and U.S. governments to provide funding to the young Afghan "to help train him and get him back to normalcy."
"To now not give him any compensation, any way to help him back to civilization, this is unacceptable," Montalvo added.
Jawad, who claims that he was only twelve when he was arrested, was released and sent back home to Afghanistan earlier in the week. His release came after U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle, who had said in June that the government's case against Jawad as "an outrage" that was "riddled with holes," ruled last month that he was being held illegally and must be released by the end of August.
Jawad was arrested by Afghan police in December 2002 for allegedly throwing a grenade into a vehicle carrying two US troops and an Afghan interpreter. All the three were injured in the blast. He was later transferred to Guantanamo Bay detention center, where he was being held for the past six-and-a-half years.
Jawad, who had confessed the crime to Afghan police, told US officials later that he only did so because he was tortured by the Afghan security officials. His argument made the evidence unusable for prosecution under President Obama's new rules for detainees.
There were also some uncertainties regarding Jawad's age at the time of his arrest. Though his lawyers argue that he was only 12 when arrested in Afghanistan, Pentagon says that medical tests proved that he was 17 at that time.
U.S. President Barack Obama wants to close the Guantanamo Bay military detention facility by January 2010, but is facing considerable opposition from various sources to shutting down the detention center. In May, the U.S. Congress blocked funds requested by the Obama administration for closing down the detention center, stating that a clear plan for the closure of the camp must be presented to the Congress before it approves the requested funds.
Following the Congress decision, Obama administration announced that military trials of some detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention center would be restarted with some changes that would give improved legal rights to the detainees facing the military commissions.
The improved rights of detainees include a ban on hearsay evidence and on the statements obtained through "cruel, inhuman and degrading" interrogation methods, including waterboarding. The new changes also protect detainees who refuse to testify and provide them more freedom in choosing their own military counsel.
Although the U.S. authorities have released more than 525 detainees from the Guantanamo Bay prison since 2002, over 200 detainees still remain in the detention camp, which was opened in late 2001 at a US naval base in Cuba soon after the 9/11 terror attacks.
For comments and feedback: contact editorial@rttnews.com
Copyright(c) 2009 RTTNews.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved
< Back to News Index
|
