On Tuesday, October 17, 2006 Bush signed into Law the Military Commissions Act of 2006.
The commissions are authorized to sentence defendants to death, and defendants are prevented from invoking the Geneva Conventions as a source of rights during commission proceedings
A key provision in the act, which was signed into law strips US courts of jurisdiction to consider writs of habeas corpus filed by detainees who are detained as enemy combatants. The US Constitution gives prisoners the right to challenge their detentions in civil court. Jurist
On the 14th of October, after the Military Commissions Act of 2006 had been passed, a US citizen was sentenced to death in Iraq. The judge at an earlier hearing had dismissed the charges informing counsel there was insufficient material evidence.
But at the trial two US officials appeared and insisted the verdict was unacceptable. Drawing the judge into an ex parte hearing they demanded the death penalty. The judge reversed his earlier ruling and returned the verdict to execute the prisoner.
"This court's failure to temporarily halt Mr. Munaf's transfer to Iraqi custody will not only send Mr. Munaf to his death without due process, it will eviscerate ... core protections against arbitrary and lawless executive action," Munaf's attorneys wrote.
Washington Post
Mohammad Munaf
Yesterday Lawyers at the Brennan Center for Justice in New York asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the United States from transferring Mohammed Munaf to custody of the Iraqi government. An Iraqi Court sentenced Mr. Munaf to death on October 12. Unless the Supreme Court acts to prevent his transfer, Mr., Munaf will be put to death.
The case against Mr. Munaf tests the right of US citizens to due process and the rule of law when held by their government.
A 53-year old American citizen and the father of three children, all of whom are US citizens, Mr. Munaf has been held without charge by the United States at Camp Cropper in Baghdad for 16 months. During this time, Munaf's lawyers say US officials subjected their client to torture and denied his requests for access to his American lawyers.
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Lawyers for Mr. Munaf dismiss the United State's claim that normal due process rules do not apply because of the US role as a proxy for the United Nations. The argument is a "preposterous legal fiction," says attorney Jonathan Hafetz. "The case against Munaf is a stark instance of the Executive Branch's use of national security as a cover for its usurpation of an American citizen's constitutional rights and the rule of law."
Joseph Margulies of the MacArthur Center for Justice at Northwestern Law School and Susan L. Burke of Burke, Pyle, and LLC are counsel, with Mr. Hafetz of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, for Mr. Munaf. Common Dreams
The US thusfar has contended that Munaf is being held by Coalition, not US forces.
On Sunday it was announced that Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to death by the Iraq High Criminal Court. Most US news sources say that the verdict was fair, while it is clear that the trial was neither fair nor impartial. During this trial Hussein was forbidden from testifying about his relationship with Donald Rumsfeld, nor the support he received from George Bush Sr. during the time of the Dujail killings.
The defense witnesses were pursued out, arrested and terrorized. Defense attorneys were denied access to the documents and evidence of the file of the case, evidence was destroyed. Millions of dollars were dedicated to the Prosecution to prepare the evidence and to call prosecution witnesses.
The proceedings of the court turned into a show to represent the claimants' claims and the persons who were described as prosecution witnesses. All of this took place amidst utter lack of security and ceaseless threats and terror against the defense lawyers. Statement of Hussein's Defense Team
Shortly after the Military Commissions Act of 2006 was signed into law, the UN warned that it set a dangerous precedent "would lead to lower worldwide standards regarding interrogation techniques and trial procedures for noncitizen detainees." The decline in standards regarding interrogation and trial procedures for US citizens as well have sunk to unprecedented levels. Those lowered standards are highlighted in the case of Mohammed Munaf, a US citizen who was tortured while in US custody, whose statements were made under torture, who was denied the right to legal counsel, and denied the right to hear evidence against him.
To help Mohammed Munaf, go to Amnesty International
Stop Execution Following Unfair Trial in Iraq