[Marxism] No detention without trial

["Lueko Willms" <lueko.willms@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The current discussion about the CIA flights, the detentions in the
worldwide US GULAG and the "extraordinary renditions" to other
countries raise not only the issue of torture, but more basically the
most basic democratic right, namely that the authorities may not
detain any human being without a proper decision by a judge or jury,
against which the detained person can defend himself with the help of
an attorney, and being represented by such attorney.

Any other democratic right defining a right of individuals against
the state is worthless without the right to detention without trial.

What value has e.g. the freedom of expression or the right to form
associations if anybody trying to exercise such right can be
captured, kidnapped and being detained secretly without any mean to
appeal to the public, i.e. to a judge, etc, such as the US military
and secret services practice it currently?

I think that this issue of No Detention Without Trial is getting in
the background compared to the issue of torture. I think that being
detained in a secret prison without any access to the outside world,
in completely isolation, is already torture enough.

We need to campaign more for this most basic democratic right, not
only against the kidnapping praxis of the CIA, but also against the
attempts to extend the legal maximum for a detention without trial,
such as recently in Britain.


Yours,

Lüko Willms
/------------------------------------ http://www.mlwerke.de
Frankfurt/Main, Germany



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