Lawyers accuse British forces of illegally detaining Afghans
- 11 years ago
Camp Bastion in Helmand Province is not only the largest British base in Afghanistan, but it is home to some 85 Afghan detainees.
Now the Phil Shiner of the Public Interest Lawyers says Britain is breaking the law.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) PHIL SHINER FROM PUBLIC INTEREST LAWYERS SAYING ON DETENTIONS IN AFGHANISTAN:
"People have been detained indefinitely, incommunicado, no one knows that they are where they are until today, their relatives have not been able to see them, they have had intermittent contact with them over the internet, they've had no access to lawyers, they have not been charged, they are not going to be brought before a court and our common law system has long recognized that that is completely unlawful and there's always been the habeus corpus remedy requiring those holding people in those circumstances to explain to a court why what they are doing is lawful. That's is what is going to happen here at the end of July"
The Ministry of Defense deni
Now the Phil Shiner of the Public Interest Lawyers says Britain is breaking the law.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) PHIL SHINER FROM PUBLIC INTEREST LAWYERS SAYING ON DETENTIONS IN AFGHANISTAN:
"People have been detained indefinitely, incommunicado, no one knows that they are where they are until today, their relatives have not been able to see them, they have had intermittent contact with them over the internet, they've had no access to lawyers, they have not been charged, they are not going to be brought before a court and our common law system has long recognized that that is completely unlawful and there's always been the habeus corpus remedy requiring those holding people in those circumstances to explain to a court why what they are doing is lawful. That's is what is going to happen here at the end of July"
The Ministry of Defense deni