You've very out of touch, they were living and arrested by the FBI in the US, no fighting in a foreign country reported. moveon.org
web.amnesty.org
PUBLIC AI Index: AMR 51/084/2003 11 June 2003
UA 166/03 Incommunicado detention/detention without charge/legal concern
USA Jose Padilla (also known as Abdullah Al Mujahir) (m)
Jose Padilla, a US citizen, has been held incommunicado in US military custody
for a year without charge or trial. He is being held as an "enemy combatant",
even though he was arrested far from a battlefield. An appeal by the US
government is currently pending against a US district court's order that Jose
Padilla be given access to his lawyer. The outcome of this case could set an
important legal precedent regarding the government's power to detain people on
national security grounds.
Jose Padilla is a US citizen, born in New York, who converted to Islam. He was
arrested at Chicago airport on 8 May 2002 on alleged suspicion of conspiracy to
detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a US city. He was originally held in the
custody of the US Justice Department as a "material witness" in a grand jury
probe, where he was given access to an attorney. However, on 9 June 2002 he was
transferred to military custody on the basis of a one-page order by President
Bush designating him to be an "enemy combatant" closely associated with al-Qa'
ida, whose detention was necessary to prevent him from aiding an attack on the
United States. Since then, he has been held in solitary confinement without
charge or trial, and without access to an attorney or to his family in a navy
jail in Charleston, South Carolina.
Jose Padilla's lawyer filed a habeas corpus application (challenging the legal
basis for his detention) on his behalf, in which she also sought access to her
client. In ruling on the case in December 2002, a US district court upheld the
president's authority to detain enemy combatants, even if they were US
citizens, with only limited right of judicial review. However, the court also
ruled that Jose Padilla was entitled to consult with, and be visited by, his
lawyer, in order to have some opportunity to present facts to rebut the
government's evidence. The US government has appealed on the ground that
granting Jose Padilla access to an attorney would undermine the "trust and
dependency" on the military that is "essential to effective interrogation".
Jose Padilla remains in incommunicado detention pending the outcome of the
appeal to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeal.
Jose Padilla's treatment represents a denial of rights of due process under the
US Constitution as well as a violation of international law. In December 2002,
the United Nations (UN) Working Group on Arbitrary Detention described his
detention as "arbitrary" with regard to articles 9 and 14 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Article 9 of the ICCPR affirms
the right of everyone to protection from arbitrary detention and specifies that
anyone arrested shall be informed promptly of the reasons for arrest and of any
charges, and shall be entitled to take proceedings before a court to challenge
the lawfulness of the detention. Article 14 states that all persons are equal
before the courts and tribunals, and sets out standards for a fair trial.
The practice of detaining people incommunicado has been condemned by human
rights bodies, including the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, as a human
rights violation which can lead to other violations such as torture or
ill-treatment or interrogation without due process safeguards. Access to a
lawyer is an important safeguard to ensure that detainees' rights are
protected, not only with regard to criminal or other proceedings, but also with
regard to conditions of detention and a detainee's physical and mental health.
Prolonged incommunicado detention or solitary confinement can in itself be a
form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Jose Padilla is one of two US citizens currently detained indefinitely as
"enemy combatants" in US military custody. The other is Yaser Esam Hamdi, who
was arrested during the US-led war in Afghanistan in late 2001 (reportedly
after surrendering to the Northern Alliance) and was originally detained in
Guantánamo Bay. He was transferred to the USA in April 2002 after the discovery
of his US nationality. He too is held incommunicado without access to a lawyer
or his family. His case is the subject of separate AI appeals, along with the
cases of more than 660 non-US nationals held without charge or trial or access
to attorneys in Guantánamo Bay (see AI report: USA Beyond the Law: Update to
Amnesty International's April Memorandum to the US Government on the rights of
detainees held in US custody in Guantánamo Bay and other locations, AI Index:
AMR 51/184/2003). |
