AI renews call for release of ATCSA prisoners
01 November 2002
On the eve of the first anniversary of the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 (ATCSA) Amnesty International called for the "immediate release of all persons detained under the ATCSA unless they are charged with a recognizably criminal offence and tried by an independent and impartial court in proceedings which meet international standards of fairness." Thirteen people have been arrested under the ATCSA since its enactment on 14 December 2001. Two have since been "voluntarily" repatriated, while ten non-UK nationals are interned without trial at the Belmarsh and Woodhill high security prisons. The eleventh man, Mahmoud Abu Rideh, was in no fit state to be detained and was transferred to the high security mental hospital, Broadmoor.
The detentions have been condemned by civil liberties lawyer Gareth Peirce, who told Amnesty:
As horrified as we were a year ago when people were first arrested, if we thought for a moment that a year later we would be no further forward we would have told the detainees bluntly `they have locked you up and thrown away the keys.' As it is we feel that we have all been subjected to a false pretence that there would ever be an early hearing that could lead to their release.
Ms Peirce's concerns were not addressed at the Committee of Privy Councillors review of ATCSA on 12 December.
Amnesty has also written to the US government reiterating its "deep concern" at the continuing detention without charge or trial of more than 600 non-US nationals in the US detention centre on Cuban territory at Guantánamo Bay. Amnesty said: "Their conditions of detention - held in small cells for up to 24 hours a day with no access to lawyers and family - together with no indication as to if, or when they will be tried or released, continues to raise urgent legal and welfare issues." The organisation calls for the voluntary repatriation of all those detained as combatants, as required under the Geneva Conventions. Eight UK citizens are known to be held by the US military at Guantánamo Bay and another four are reported to be held at US bases in Afghanistan.
Amnesty International press releases 12 & 13.12.02; Committee of Privy-Councillors "Anti-Terrorism, crime and Security Act 2001 review" press release 12.12.02