Russian Homeland No Haven For Ex-Detainees, Activists Say

[struggle4progress]

Men Freed From Guantanamo Allegedly Face Campaign of Abuse

By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, September 3, 2006; Page A14

KAZAN, Russia -- .. In May of this year, Ishmuratov, a slight man now shorn of his beard, was sentenced to a long prison term on charges of sabotaging a gas pipeline in a town southeast of here in Tatarstan, a majority-Muslim republic in central Russia. Human rights groups say there are credible accusations of torture leading to forced confessions by Ishmuratov and the two other men tried with him.

The fate of the Guantanamo prisoners, activists here say, calls into question not only the rule of law in Russia but also U.S. responsibility under international conventions not to return inmates to countries where they face the threat of torture.

"The U.S. government has failed these men three times," said Carroll Bogert, associate director of Human Rights Watch, the New York-based advocacy group, which is studying the fates of the former Russian inmates. "First, by detaining these men without charge at Guantanamo, then by sending them back to Russia in violation of international law because they faced the real threat of torture, and third, by failing to monitor and protest their treatment." ..

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/02/AR2006090200452.html