While most of the press and the engaged public focuses on the televised Senate confirmation hearings of President George W. Bush’s latest conservative nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, hearings on military commissions and torture will take place in Guatanamo Bay on Wednesday, January 11.

Human Rights First will be monitoring the trial and posting reactions on a blog on the subject.

The military commissions - which are inconsistent with the laws of war, human rights laws and the U.S. Constitution - resume for the first time in over a year since a federal district court ruled them unlawful. The legality of the commissions is now before the Supreme Court with oral arguments expected in March, the group says in an e-mail press release.

The military commissions suffer from a variety of flaws: they are under the complete control of the President, without independent judicial review; they may allow for evidence to be used against the defendant without his ever being apprised of the information; they include charges for offenses that do not exist under the laws of war; and they fail to preclude the use of evidence obtained through torture.

This is an important matter and we hope the media and the public will pay attention.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 11th, 2006 at 10:51 am and is filed under Prison Torture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.