There is no way around the justice system for American authorities now.
The U.S. secretary of defence has ordered plans for the closing of the prison camp at Guantanamo. We could not ask for better news to end 2008. Hundreds of people have been deported to the “camp of shame,” torture has been used during interrogation, and the sentencing has been done at military tribunals exempt from ordinary legal principles.
Guantanamo will be Barack Obamas first big test.
He will lose all credibility if he does not shut down the makeshift prison. If the western world is to use words like democracy and freedom of speech to honor themselves, this is considered a vile breach of normal rule of law.
What about the 250 prisoners who are locked up without sentence? American authorities are scratching their heads and wondering what they will do with these people. American politicians, Obama included, fear that there are trained terrorists amongst them who should not be set free.
American intelligence has probably ruined the chances of convictions through an open, free trial, when “confessions” are produced by means characterised as torture. An American court will probably dismiss many of the cases and demand the detainees released.
There is no way around the justice system for American authorities. The world simply does not have confidence in reasons for keeping someone locked up on the island. We do not know how true American claims are about the danger these people pose. Trust can only be restored by putting the prisoners on public trial.
That is the price to pay for the human rights violations this prison camp at Guantanamo has represented since 2002.
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