Back in May 2002, an American citizen by the name of José Padilla was arrested in Chicago following one hell of a sight-seeing holiday. Padilla had travelled to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq – and arrived back in the US carrying over $10,000 and (so the CIA say) the contact details of a number of suspected terrorists. Things immediately started looking bad for the 32 year old. He was quickly declared an ‘enemy combatant’ (denying him any legal rights) and locked up in a military base in South Carolina – where he remained, in solitary confinement - for 3 and a half years.
As far as Terrorism cases go, Padilla’s seemed to be representative of many of the debates over their handling: the use of torture, the right to a fair and speedy trail, the necessity for hard evidence and the basic right of the government to pluck people off the street and hold them indefinitely.
Accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive ‘dirty bomb’ on US soil, Padilla was one of the first high profile captives – and a potential media victory for the Bush Administration. During his incarceration Padilla alleges that he was tortured: subject to sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation, forced stress positions and injected with various drugs. Above all he was isolated so severely from human contact, that he exhibited “a facial tic, problems with social contact, lack of concentration and a form of Stockholm syndrome." A psychiatrist hired by his defense team diagnosed his condition as post-traumatic stress disorder. Despite this he was found to be fit for trial – and in late 2007 he was found guilty of conspiracy and providing aid to terrorists.
Last week, the now 37 year old Padilla was sentenced to a further 17 years in prison – in a case that presiding judge called “light on facts”. The judge also found that “there is no evidence that these defendants personally maimed, kidnapped or killed anyone in the United States or elsewhere,” and that “conditions were so harsh for Mr. Padilla ... they warrant consideration in the sentencing in this case”. Padilla is appealing, but is still looking down the barrel of a long lump – despite the lack of ‘facts’ and ‘evidence’.
It’s a scary case – one that speaks largely for itself. No one is saying Padilla was a nice guy, but plenty fear the precedent set by prosecuting on the basis of circumstantial evidence – and thought and not deed. Let me leave you with what I feel is an astute summary of the concerns here, penned by someone called Andy Worthington:
“[Seventeen] years and four months seems to me to be an extraordinarily long sentence for little more than a thought crime, but when the issue of Padilla's three and half years of suppressed torture is raised, it's difficult not to conclude that justice has just been horribly twisted, that the President and his advisors have just got away with torturing an American citizen with impunity, and that no American citizen can be sure that what happened to Padilla will not happen to him or her. Today, it was a Muslim; tomorrow, unless the government's powers are taken away from them, it could be any number of categories of 'enemy combatants' who have not yet been identified.”
As far as Terrorism cases go, Padilla’s seemed to be representative of many of the debates over their handling: the use of torture, the right to a fair and speedy trail, the necessity for hard evidence and the basic right of the government to pluck people off the street and hold them indefinitely.
Accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive ‘dirty bomb’ on US soil, Padilla was one of the first high profile captives – and a potential media victory for the Bush Administration. During his incarceration Padilla alleges that he was tortured: subject to sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation, forced stress positions and injected with various drugs. Above all he was isolated so severely from human contact, that he exhibited “a facial tic, problems with social contact, lack of concentration and a form of Stockholm syndrome." A psychiatrist hired by his defense team diagnosed his condition as post-traumatic stress disorder. Despite this he was found to be fit for trial – and in late 2007 he was found guilty of conspiracy and providing aid to terrorists.
Last week, the now 37 year old Padilla was sentenced to a further 17 years in prison – in a case that presiding judge called “light on facts”. The judge also found that “there is no evidence that these defendants personally maimed, kidnapped or killed anyone in the United States or elsewhere,” and that “conditions were so harsh for Mr. Padilla ... they warrant consideration in the sentencing in this case”. Padilla is appealing, but is still looking down the barrel of a long lump – despite the lack of ‘facts’ and ‘evidence’.
It’s a scary case – one that speaks largely for itself. No one is saying Padilla was a nice guy, but plenty fear the precedent set by prosecuting on the basis of circumstantial evidence – and thought and not deed. Let me leave you with what I feel is an astute summary of the concerns here, penned by someone called Andy Worthington:
“[Seventeen] years and four months seems to me to be an extraordinarily long sentence for little more than a thought crime, but when the issue of Padilla's three and half years of suppressed torture is raised, it's difficult not to conclude that justice has just been horribly twisted, that the President and his advisors have just got away with torturing an American citizen with impunity, and that no American citizen can be sure that what happened to Padilla will not happen to him or her. Today, it was a Muslim; tomorrow, unless the government's powers are taken away from them, it could be any number of categories of 'enemy combatants' who have not yet been identified.”
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