Trump Wants Manhattan Incident Suspect Denied All Rights
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
The deplorable state of America finds ways of sinking to new lows – abroad against nonthreatening nations, at home against targeted individuals, mostly Muslims and people of color, the nation’s most disadvantaged.
What happened in Manhattan on Tuesday was dreadful, killing and injuring innocent victims – the stuff US imperial rampaging does globally on an industrial scale, causing millions of casualties, no accountability for perpetrators, the nation’s bipartisan criminal class matching the viciousness of Nazism’s worst.
New York suspect Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov deserves his day in court, his constitutional right.
The Geneva Conventions guarantee a fair trial for anyone charged with war crimes. Pre-Geneva, accused Nazis got one, though not enough of them.
America’s Sixth Amendment, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention of Human Rights, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the American Convention on Human Rights (the so-called Pact of San Jose), and other human rights laws affirm the right of a fair civil trial.
Not according to Trump, calling the US justice system a “joke” for the wrong reasons. He wants Saipov receiving “much tougher” treatment. He sounded deranged saying:
“We have to come up with punishment that’s far quicker and far greater than the punishment these animals are getting right now. They’ll go through court for years…We need quick justice, and we need strong justice.”
“I would certainly consider” sending Saipov to Guantanamo – a profoundly illegal black hole of injustice, along with other US global torture prisons.
On Wednesday, neocon John McCain bellowed “(t)ake him to Guantanamo. He’s a terrorist. He should be kept there. There’s no Miranda rights for somebody who kills Americans.”
Neocon Lindsey Graham also supports extrajudicial punishment, blustering Saipov “should be held as an enemy combatant,” the lawless designation discussed in a same day article.
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) represented abused Guantanamo victims for 15 years, detainees denied all rights.
Since 1966, CCR waged an uphill struggle against US injustice. It’s dedicated to advancing and protecting constitutional and international law guaranteed rights.
On November 1, it issued a press release on Saipov, saying the following:
“Guantanamo Bay is and always has been a prison exclusively for Muslims, which is undoubtedly the only reason Donald Trump made the idiotic suggestion to send Sayfullo Saipov there.”
“Fifteen years has proven no one will ever be successfully tried or ‘brought to justice’ at Guantanamo, and the president and his supporters within his own party are deluded if they believe otherwise.”
“Trump’s hatred of immigrants and Muslims emboldens white supremacists and strengthens terrorist groups like ISIS.”
“He cares little for the escalating violence inspired by his statements or the damage to institutions of democratic government he is intent on undermining.”
“The Center for Constitutional Rights has led the fight to close Guantanamo Bay and end torture there since the prison was established more than fifteen years ago.”
“If Mr. Trump sends additional detainees there, we will represent them and fight for them as we continue to fight for the men held there today.”
Wednesday on Fox News, legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano said sending Saipov to Guantanamo would be “unfair, unlawful and unconstitutional.”
He’ll likely end up there anyway.
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