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By restricting judicial oversight and blocking public scrutiny, the government has exercised virtually unchecked power over those it has detained |
NEW
YORK, August 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – In an
incriminating report that called for checks on government authority to
be restored, Human Rights Watch condemned the U.S. government's severe
human rights abuses in its investigation of the September 11 attacks,
including arbitrary detentions, due process violations, and secret
arrests.
The
U.S. Department of Justice has misused immigration charges to dodge
legal restraints on its power to detain and interrogate people as it
pursues its terror probe, said Human Rights Watch on its website.
"An
immigration violation should not give the government license to rip up
the rule book," said Jamie Fellner, director of Human Rights
Watch's U.S. Program. "By restricting judicial oversight and
blocking public scrutiny, the government has exercised virtually
unchecked power over those it has detained."
The
ninety-five page report, "Presumption
of Guilt: Human Rights Abuses of Post-September 11 Detainees,"
is based on Human Rights Watch interviews with scores of current and
former detainees and their attorneys. The report provides the most
comprehensive analysis yet of the Justice Department's treatment of
non-citizens swept up in the post-September 11 investigation.
The
rights watchdog found that the U.S. government has held some detainees
for prolonged periods without charges; impeded their access to
counsel; subjected them to coercive interrogations; and overridden
judicial orders to release them on bond during immigration
proceedings.
In
some cases, the government has incarcerated detainees for months under
restrictive conditions, including solitary confinement. Some detainees
were physically and verbally abused because of their national origin
or religion.
Some
1,200 non-citizens have been secretly arrested and incarcerated in
connection with the September 11 investigation, although the
government has not disclosed the exact number, said the report. The
vast majority are from Middle Eastern, South Asian, and North African
countries.
The
report describes cases in which random encounters with law enforcement
or neighbors' suspicions based on no more than national origin and
religion led to interrogation about possible links to terrorism.
At
least 752 men were then held on immigration charges while the
government continued to investigate them. Turning the presumption of
innocence on its head, the Department of Justice kept them in
detention until it decided they had no links to or knowledge of
terrorism. None of the 752 men has been indicted for terrorist-related
crimes. Most were ultimately removed from the United States.
Using
immigration law violations to detain these men while they were
criminally investigated enabled the Justice Department to deny
non-citizens their rights under U.S. criminal law - for example, the
right to court-appointed counsel and the right to be promptly charged
after arrest, said the report.
In
some cases, the Justice Department flouted regular procedures to keep
non-citizens in the custody of the Immigration and Naturalization
Service (INS) on the off chance that they might be found to be engaged
in terrorism, a practice that amounts to unlawful "preventive
detention."
"The
U.S. government has failed to uphold the very values that President
[George W.] Bush declared were under attack on September 11,"
said Fellner. "It has ignored basic restraints on a government's
power to detain that are the hallmark of free and democratic
nations."
Human
Rights Watch also criticized the U.S. government for blocking the
public's right to know what its government is doing. Secret arrests
and secret hearings are incompatible with core democratic values of
openness, government accountability, and the rule of law.
In
its incriminating report, Human Rights Watch called on the U.S.
government to immediately release the names of all persons detained
since September 11 in connection with the terrorism investigation, and
reverse its policy of secret hearings.
It
also called on the government to inform
all INS detainees of the charges against them within forty-eight hours
of arrest or release them, and rescind the rule that permits
indefinite delay in charging INS detainees in "exceptional
circumstances."
The
government is also to advise
all INS detainees who are questioned about terrorism of their right to
remain silent, to have an attorney present during questioning, and to
have one court-appointed if needed.
The
report also called on the U.S. government to comply immediately with
all judicial orders to release detainees on bond, and stop keeping
persons in INS detention until law enforcement decides that they are
innocent of terrorist links.
