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Civilian court for 9/11 trial: UN
GENEVA - United Nations human rights investigators called on the Obama administration on Tuesday to prosecute the accused Sept 11 masterminds in a civilian court, declaring that US military tribunals would not be fair.Usual nonsense from the usual, meddling suspects. The White House is reviewing options to bring the 9/11 detainees to justice and US officials said on Friday senior administration officials may recommend that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspects in the 2001 attacks face a military trial. 'I take the view that the Military Commissions Act is fundamentally flawed. It is very far from international fair trial standards and probably cannot be fixed,' said Martin Scheinin, UN special rapporteur on the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism. Not that we care what Marty thinks ... Mr Scheinin and other UN rapporteurs are independent investigators reporting to the UN Human Rights Council, whose 47 members include the United States. The Finnish international law professor, who has visited the US-run detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, also said it would be a mistake for the Obama administration to try to reform the Military Commissions Act, proclaimed under President George W. Bush, to try to provide for fair trials. 'To me the only safe option is to go to regular federal criminal courts which also have a much better track record in dealing with terrorism cases than the very unfortunate military commissions,'Mr Scheinin told a news briefing in Geneva. Military trials allow for evidence obtained by cruel or degrading treatment of detainees and have a 'backdoor' for using confessions obtained under torture by allowing hearsay, he said. Posted by: Steve White 2010-03-10 |
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