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US, Yemen should allow 'meaningful legal process' in Guantanamo repatriation: HRW

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) called Sunday for the US and Yemen to agree on a repatriation plan that provides "meaningful legal process" for the nearly 100 Yemeni detainees still at Guantanamo Bay. A new HRW report criticized any proposal involving indefinite suspension at a Yemeni facility and expressed fears of detainee mistreatment after repatriation. The organization called for genuine rehabilitation efforts, questioning a Yemeni proposal in which detainees could be held for more than a year and face movement restrictions after release. The report called on Yemen to comply with the UN Convention against Torture and commit to fair trials for any detainees who are charged. HRW's fears of detainee mistreatment are based in part on its follow-up with the 14 Yemeni detainees who have already been repatriated. One said he was beaten by investigators during his two-year detention. The report asked the US to refrain from pressuring Yemen to hold detainees without charges and called for a truth commission to investigate alleged abuse of detainees. Any detainee who cannot return to Yemen due to a credible fear of persecution should be resettled in a safe third country, the report said. In January, US President Barack Obama issued an executive order directing the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility within one year. In July 2008, Yemeni officials met with a visiting US delegation to discuss the possible transfer of Yemeni detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, with the US voicing concerns that they would be freed upon their return. In October 2007, US officials criticized the Yemeni government over reports that it had released suspected USS Cole bomber Jamal al-Badawi after he turned himself in. In May 2007, a senior Yemeni official said the country had agreed to receive most Yemeni detainees being held at Guantanamo. In June 2006, Yemeni officials called for investigations into the Guantanamo suicides of three detainees, including one Yemeni national, saying that the deaths exemplified the "inhumane conditions of detainees" at the US military prison.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on March 29, 2009 (boomark / email).