Detainees tried in fast-track proceedings

[struggle4progress]

Secretive trials in Afghan courts 'flawed,' a rights advocate claims
By DAVID ROHDE and TIM GOLDEN
New York Times

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — Dozens of Afghan men who were previously held by the United States at Bagram Air Base and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are now being tried here in secretive Afghan criminal proceedings based mainly on allegations forwarded by the American military.

The prisoners are being convicted and sentenced to as much as 20 years' confinement in trials that typically run between half an hour and an hour, said human rights investigators who have observed them. One early trial was reported to have lasted barely 10 minutes, an investigator said.

The prosecutions are based in part on a security law promulgated in 1987, during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Witnesses do not appear in court and cannot be cross-examined. There are no sworn statements of their testimony. Instead, the trials appear to be based almost entirely on terse summaries of allegations that are forwarded to the Afghan authorities by the U.S. military.

"These are no-witness paper trials that deny the defendants a fundamental fair-trial right to challenge the evidence and mount a defense," said Sahr MuhammedAlly, a lawyer for the advocacy group Human Rights First who has studied the proceedings. "So any convictions you get are fundamentally flawed." ...

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/5695045.html

[babylonsister]

1. Disgusting. I posted about this two days ago; no one gives

a flick. This is all done in our names, and no one is paying attention.

[struggle4progress]

2. It's hard to keep up with it all, babsis

The piles of crap really do stretch for miles and miles in every direction -- so it can be hard not to get discouraged, which can be difficult once one begins to see a longterm fight is necessary

I knew I'd seen a prior post on this when I posted -- and probably should have searched for it

Hang in there! Many of us appreciate your posts!