Legal Commentary

Guantanamo Death Trials: 'Not Acceptable'

By TChris

As TalkLeft noted here, the Bush administration is encouraging a sudden rush of trials at Guantanamo to put on a nice show for voters before the November elections. Some of those trials may seek the death penalty, much to the dismay of the international community.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said on Tuesday planned Guantánamo war crimes trials fell short of international standards and handing down death penalties would be "just not acceptable".

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"In a process where the definition of a crime is somewhat more ambiguous, the standard of proof is lowered, the capacity to make a full answer of defence is lowered, the chances of wrongful conviction necessarily increases," Arbour said. "So to add the death penalty to that, it seems to me, is just not acceptable," she said of the Guantánamo trials.

Arbour said international human rights law permitted the death penalty for the most serious crimes if trials are fair. "There has to be impeccable due process, the process has to meet the highest standards of fairness," she said. "Frankly, I think the military commissions ... fall short in many respects."

The Bush administration, of course, could care less about human rights, much less about the opinions of UN member countries.

In an interview with Reuters before leaving office on June 30, the former UN war crimes chief prosecutor chided the administration of US President George Bush for last week's decision to distance itself from the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on June 11, 2008 (boomark / email).