THE European Union should scrap an extradition and judicial co-operation agreement with the US due to come into effect in May 2004 unless all Gauntanamo Bay inmates are guaranteed a fair trial, Euro-MPs have demanded at a public hearing into allegations of human rights abuses at the base.
Jean Lambert, London Green MEP and a member of the Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee, said the EU has refused to enter into closer judicial co-operation with several states over human rights abuses and cavalier attitude to international law.
"The situation at Gauntanamo Bay is unacceptable and a slap in the face of democracy, human rights and the rule of law," said Mrs Lambert, speaking at the Brussels public hearing into US plans to deny a fair trial to suspects held at the Cuban camp earlier today.
"If the EU is serious in its commitment to democracy, human rights and
the rule of law it must send a clear message to George W Bush that he can expect
no judicial co-operation or extradition of US suspects until he has put his
house in order," she said.
The EU-US agreements on judicial co-operation and extradition were adopted by the European Parliament in May and are due to come into force in May 2004, but only if the US has found a 'fair solution to the problems.of [those] held at.Guantanamo Bay'.
"The European Parliament agreed the conditions of those held at Guantanamo bay should act as a litmus test of the US attitude to the international rule of law," said Mrs Lambert.
Mrs Lambert joins a cross-party group of MEPs recommending that Europe's Council of Ministers begin to undertake diplomatic initiatives to resolve the situation for Gauntanamo inmates.
The right to a fair trial is guaranteed in international law. Article 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for instance, states: Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal.
The US however plans to try Gauntanamo Bay inmates in closed military tribunals, with no jury and the defendants granted no legal representation, despite the likely application of the death penalty to those convicted.
ENDS
For more information please contact Ben Duncan on 020 7407 6280, 07973
823358 or at press@greenmeps.org.uk