Charge and try – or release

Today’s letter in the Amnesty International’s Write for Rights Global Write-a-thon went to U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. It included the broad request that detainees at Guantanamo and the detention facility at Bagram in Afghanistan should either be charged and tried in U.S. federal court or be released to countries where their human rights will be respected.

It specifically asked that the U.S. government either either charge and fairly try Guantanamo detainee Shaker Aamer in U.S. federal court, or release him to the United Kingdom (UK), as the UK government has requested.

Shaker Aamer, a former UK resident, has been held without charge at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for nearly 10 years.  The UK government has repeatedly requested that he be returned to the United Kingdom, where his wife and four children live.  February 2012 will mark the tenth anniversary of his detention without charge at Guantanamo.

Aamer may be guilty; he may be innocent. In either case, he has the right to be charged and tried. If the U.S. is not prepared to do that – after almost 10 years – he should be released.

Indefinite detention is a human rights violation.

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See you along the Trail.