[DEBATE] : You are free now go back to jail - Freed Guantanamo men face trial

[Riaz K Tayob]

Freed Guantanamo men face trial           

The five Afghan detainees have been taken to
Pul-i-Charkhe prison on the outskirts of Kabul

Five Afghan detainees who were released from Guantanamo Bay last week 
have been sent to jail upon their arrival in Afghanistan.
 
They had been detained at Guantanamo Bay with the Al Jazeera cameraman, 
Sami al-Hajj.
 
Al-Hajj and the Afghan detainees were on the same plane after they were 
released from the US military prison.
    
The detainees, who have been taken to the Pul-i-Charkhe prison on the 
outskirts of Kabul, the Afghan capital, will now face Afghan courts.
 
Detainees from Guantanamo Bay and any other US prison facility are 
usually transferred to Afghan custody once they are released.
    
A relative of Hajji Ruhollah, one of the men released, is now seeking 
legal assistance to find out when Ruhollah will be free.
 
Speaking to Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr in Kabul, the relative said: "If 
the US decides to release them then they are innocent, and if there is 
no evidence against them, he should be released without trial."
 
US evidence
 
Prisoners who have been released from Guantanamo and returned to 
Afghanistan have been charged under Afghan law with crimes ranging from 
treason to destruction of government property.
 
The Afghan supreme court, which overseas all the cases, says that the 
evidence is prepared by the US authorities.
 
Some defendants have been sentenced to prison terms of up to 20 years.
 
Lal Gul, a human-rights activist, says this treatment is a new development.
 
"This procedure to take them to prison and try them in Afghan courts is 
... to prevent these detainees from seeking compensation for their 
illegal arrest," he said.
 
"In the past, when they were released they were given apology letters 
and sent home."
 
'Unfair' trial
 
Both Afghan and US human-rights groups say these trials are unfair and 
based merely on allegations by American officials.
 
They also say that the ongoing trials have no prosecution witnesses and 
no defence lawyers present when a client is interrogated.
 
Abdul Rasheed Rashid, a member of the Afghan supreme court, dismissed 
claims that the court proceedings are unlawful.
 
"Judges [are] aware of the procedure ... situation is ready for legal 
trial and if the detainee doesn't want a lawyer it is up to him," he 
told Al Jazeera.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E89DEA9F-623E-4349-A0B4-349E18BE5439.htm