Rights groups identify 'ghost detainees'
Thursday, 07 Jun 2007 10:33
The report suggests the 39 are being held in secret custody
A coalition of human rights groups has produced a list of 39 'ghost detainees' they claim are being held as part of the US-led war on terror.
Amnesty International, Cageprisoners, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University School of Law, Human Rights Watch and Reprieve have published names and details of the apparent prisoners today.
It is claimed that they all being held in secret custody and three of the groups have used freedom of information laws to attempt to get the US government to disclose where the prisoners are.
In the 21-page briefing paper, Off the Record: US Responsibility for Enforced Disappearances in the War on Terror, the organisations claim that nationals from Egypt, Kenya, Libya, Morocco, Pakistan and Spain are all being detained.
They suggest that the suspects were arrested in countries including Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia and Sudan, before being taken to secret US detention centres.
Relatives of those suspects – some as young as seven – have also been detained, according to the report.
Clive Stafford Smith, legal director of Reprieve, said: "It's time for the US government to come clean: these 39 people have been missing for years, and the evidence shows they were in US custody at some point.
"Where are they and what has been done to them?"
Amnesty International's Professor Meg Satterthwaite, who helped to draw up the list, said that although it was not known exactly where the detainees were being held, there was nevertheless "evidence" to show they were being held by the US government.
"We're fairly certain that they're not in the United States. This system has actually been constructed to keep them outside of the US legal system," she told the Today programme.
"We believe that there have been secret detention sites certainly in Afghanistan and there have been reports, and evidence has emerged, that there may have been sites in eastern Europe as well as in North Africa and other locations.
"Unfortunately at this time we can't confirm for sure where these detainees are or have been held."
Commenting on the report, CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said: "There's a lot of myth outside government when it comes to the CIA and the fight against terror.
"The plain truth is that we act in strict accord with American law, and that our counter-terror initiatives - which are subject to careful review and oversight - have been very effective in disrupting plots and saving lives," he said. "The United States does not conduct or condone torture."