Pentagon to ban torture evidence
3/23/2006 12:00:00 PM GMT

(Reuters Photo) A detainee wearing shackles is escorted into a building at Guantanamo Bay

The Pentagon is expected to formally ban the use of evidence obtained by torture in the special military tribunals of Guantanamo detainees, AFP reported.

The new ban would require military prosecutors to follow a UN convention against torture which bans the use of any evidence gained through torture.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said that the Bush Administration has been relying on prosecutors to ensure that their evidence hasn’t been obtained through torture. But he said that the Pentagon is now considering “whether or not a formal instruction that bars the prosecution from offering this type of evidence is necessary.”

“It is something that is being looked at as a possible way to eliminate any doubt that the Convention Against Torture, Article 15, is understood and is applicable to these prosecutions," he said, according to Reuters.

Article 15 of the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment requires states to ensure that evidence used in trials were not gained through torture.

U.S. defense lawyers say that the commissions’ loose rule of evidence would allow the defendants to be tried on the basis of torture evidence.

Air Force Maj. Jane Boomer, a Pentagon spokeswoman, told reporters at Guantanamo earlier this month that current tribunal rules could allow the use of evidence obtained through torture because such evidence was not specifically banned. “It is not specified in the rulebook, period," she said.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the ban is expected to be issued this week but Mr Whitman said a decision hasn’t been taken yet.

If the ban is approved this week, it would come just before the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments on the legality of the military commissions, which were set up by the Bush Administration outside the U.S. legal system to try foreign suspects detained in the U.S.‘s war on terror.

The United States is holding more than 500 foreign suspects at Guantanamo prison. Many have been held for four years without a charge.

The use of torture at Guantanamo, and the detainees’ indefinite detentions and lack of legal rights have been condemned by the United Nations, some foreign governments and international human rights groups, who demand the U.S. to close down the detention facility.

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