News
US Ex-General Demands Guantanamo Prison Closure
Major General Lehnert, a retired officer of the US Army, demanded today immediate closure of the prison that the United States maintains in the Cuban eastern province of Guantanamo.
Source
Prensa Latina
Date
Major General Lehnert, a retired officer of the US Army, demanded today immediate closure of the prison that the United States maintains in the Cuban eastern province of Guantanamo.
Lehnert was the first chief of the detention center for those accused of terrorism, opened in January, 2002 in that military base on Cuban soil against the will of the people and the Government of the Caribbean island.
"It is time to close the prison to abide by domestic and international laws, the US Constitution and ensure that human rights are respected," said the general of the Marine Corps.
"I think we did a bad job since the beginning, determining who would be sent to Guantanamo, especially during the first days after opening the prison, and most of the prisoners should have never been there," he said.
The former military man criticized the work by military commissions that try the prisoners in that penitentiary, and said trials could be held in US courts, according to an article published today by the newspaper Stars and Stripes.
After assuming his first term of office in 2009, President Barack Obama signed an executive order to close Guantanamo prison in less than one year, but the prison is still operating.
There are numerous denunciations about the use of cruel techniques in that detention center, as deprivation of sleep, locking prisoners naked in rooms at low temperatures and exhausting interrogations.
Lehnert was the first chief of the detention center for those accused of terrorism, opened in January, 2002 in that military base on Cuban soil against the will of the people and the Government of the Caribbean island.
"It is time to close the prison to abide by domestic and international laws, the US Constitution and ensure that human rights are respected," said the general of the Marine Corps.
"I think we did a bad job since the beginning, determining who would be sent to Guantanamo, especially during the first days after opening the prison, and most of the prisoners should have never been there," he said.
The former military man criticized the work by military commissions that try the prisoners in that penitentiary, and said trials could be held in US courts, according to an article published today by the newspaper Stars and Stripes.
After assuming his first term of office in 2009, President Barack Obama signed an executive order to close Guantanamo prison in less than one year, but the prison is still operating.
There are numerous denunciations about the use of cruel techniques in that detention center, as deprivation of sleep, locking prisoners naked in rooms at low temperatures and exhausting interrogations.