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EU: Europe Turns the Screws on Former Guantánamo Prisoners

14 September 2016

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"The US-run detention centre for “war on terror” prisoners at Guantánamo Bay is truly a collaborative effort; dozens of states worldwide assisted the US in the arrest, detention, torture or transport to torture of the around 800 men who have been held there. In some cases, their home states provided information that led to arrests, or failed to prevent or protest their illegal detention and torture once they became aware of it.

European states have proved no exception, making them complicit in the torture of their own citizens. Several dozen citizens and residents of European states have been held at Guantánamo. With the exception of Russian Ravil Mingazov, who was cleared for release in July 2016, all other European citizens were repatriated by 2005. European residents have also been returned to their countries of residence or origin. None were ever prosecuted at Guantánamo. As with prisoners released elsewhere however, legal problems and harassment have followed them.

(...)

This is not to discount the possibility that former prisoners could engage in such [illegal] activity. Playing the Guantánamo card, however, as the case above illustrates, rules out the need for any factual evidence. It creates an assumption of guilt that needs no proof, adds an international dimension to domestic crime and lowers the bar on what counts as admissible proof. Detention at Guantánamo is evidence enough of guilt."

See the full story: Europe Turns the Screws on Former Guantánamo Prisoners (one small window, link)

And see: Crime and Punishment? Prosecutions of Former Guantánamo Prisoners in Europe (one small window, link): an overview of ex-Guantánamo prisoners who are citizens of or resident in European states who have been tried, prosecuted and harassed by the authorities after their release from the prison camp.

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