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| National |
| Amnesty attacks USA over al Qaeda transfer |
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by
Gedion Munthali, 26 June 2003
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18:40:03
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The Amnesty International on Thursday expressed concern over the secret transfer to US custody of five men arrested in Malawi on suspicion of being members of the al Qaeda, saying the act “heightens concern about the US’s attitude to the human rights of people detained in the so-called war on terror”
“Once again it seems that the US may have been involved in a transfer which circumvents basic human rights protections and national law,” said the international human rights body in a statement posted on its website.
The five al Qaeda suspects were flown out of Malawi on Monday night as their lawyers were fighting in the Malawi High Court against a State’s intended application to challenge his order against their detention and deportation.
Saudi national Fahad al Bahli, Ibrahim Habaci from Turkey, Arif Ulasam also a Turkish national, Mahmud Sardar Issa from Sudan and Khalifa Abdi Hassan from Kenya were taken out on an Air Malawi plane chartered by the United States Embassy.
“Ironically, this alleged transfer took place on the same day that the State Department released a report about how much the US is doing to promote human rights worldwide,” said the body, which likened the episode to “unlawful transfer of six Algerians from Bosnia -Herzegovina in January 2002 to the US Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay”.
Head of the Public Affairs section at the United States Embassy in Lilongwe Robin Diallo declined to shed more light on the issue.
“The Embassy has seen the press reports, and will not give more information,” said Diallo on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, the State asked the High Court in Blantyre to stop entertaining any matters related to the al Qaeda suspects because of its notice at the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal to challenge Judge Healey Potani’s order made on Sunday stopping the suspect’s detention and deportation.
State lawyer Primrose Chimwaza told Judge Frank Kapanda the order was wrongly granted, saying, according to immigration law, it should have been obtained from a magistrate’s court.
“Although the High Court, according to the constitution, has unlimited jurisdiction, but it’s good practice that procedures laid down in the statutes are exhausted,” said Chimwaza, adding that the suspects’ lawyers should not have been granted an exparte hearing (hearing them without the other side).
“If an interparte hearing (hearing of both sides) was given we would have pointed out to the court that the applicants lawyers had jumped the gun by not making the first stop at a magistrate’s court,” she said.
But suspects’ lawyer Shabir Latif dismissed the State’s application as an abuse of the court process”, saying the state did not need to go to the Supreme Court of Appeal before exhausting all the options Potani gave them on Tuesday when he dismissed its bid to challenge the order he made on Sunday.
“The judge said the application could still be made to challenge his order so long the State gives us and the court one full day notice. Before the State takes up this option, they are already in the Supreme Court. This is an abuse of the court process,” said Latif.
Latif said the State was in a hurry to stop all proceedings related to the al Qaeda issue in the High Court “because it is afraid of facing reggae music, which is contempt of court proceedings.”
Director of Public Prosecutions Fahad Assani “rubbished” in an interview the contempt of court proceedings threat, saying “they will just be wasting their time”.
“They will place the charges against who? They cannot place the charges against the State because these people (suspects) were not in our hands. They cannot place them against the Americans because they enjoy diplomatic immunity. We will challenge them very very successfully,” said Assani.
But Latif said that those who were served with the order will have to be held to account. The order, telephonically served on Sunday night before being formally served on Monday morning according to Latif, was directed at the Minister of Home Affairs, Attorney General, Inspector General of Police and Lilongwe International Airport commandant. |
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