Slightly EFL, emphasis mine.
The 1949 Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war, endorsed by 191 nations, including the United States, spell out legal and other rights of prisoners of war which the International Red CrossThingy say apply to Saddam Hussein. Here are excepts from the convention covering treatment of POWs. In general, it requires the detaining power to give POWs the same legal treatment it gives its own soldiers. The United States is the detaining power in this case. Article 84. A prisoner of war shall be tried only by a military court, unless the existing laws of the Detaining Power expressly permit the civil courts to try a member of the armed forces of the Detaining Power in respect of the particular offense alleged to have been committed by the prisoner of war.
So if the detainees in GITMO are given POW status, they must be tried in military tribunals.
In no circumstances whatever shall a prisoner of war be tried by a court of any kind which does not offer the essential guarantees of independence and impartiality ....
Article 99. ... No moral or physical coercion may be exerted on a prisoner of war in order to induce him to admit himself guilty of the act of which he is accused. No prisoner of war may be convicted without having had an opportunity to present his defense and the assistance of a qualified advocate or counsel.
Article 101. If the death penalty is pronounced on a prisoner of war, the sentence shall not be executed before the expiration of a period of at least six months. ...
Article 102. A prisoner of war can be validly sentenced only if the sentence has been pronounced by the same courts according to the same procedure as in the case of members of the armed forces of the Detaining Power. ...
Article 103. Judicial investigations relating to a prisoner of war shall be conducted as rapidly as circumstances permit and so that his trial shall take place as soon as possible. ...
Article 106. Every prisoner of war shall have, in the same manner as the members of the armed forces of the Detaining Power, the right of appeal or petition from any sentence pronounced upon him. ...
Article 126. (The delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross Thingy) shall have permission to go to all places where prisoners of war may be, particularly to places of internment, imprisonment and labor
(labor is leagal - get out the orange jumpsuits we have found our IED detectors streetsweepers),
and shall have access to all premises occupied by prisoners of war; they shall also be allowed to go to the places of departure, passage and arrival of prisoners who are being transferred. They shall be able to interview the prisoners, and in particular the prisoners’ representatives, without witnesses, either personally or through an interpreter. ...
Must be why Iraq never signed the accords.
(They) shall have full liberty to select the places they wish to visit. The duration and frequency of these visits shall not be restricted. Visits may not be prohibited except for reasons of imperative military necessity, and then only as an exceptional and temporary measure. |