Foreign Nationals Rendered To Guantánamo Bay-Style Detention And Abuse In Ethiopia report

Description

Joint CagePrisoners and Reprieve report.

Reprieve and Cageprisoners are deeply concerned by further reports of abuse, disappearance and Guantánamo Bay-style imprisonment of foreign nationals in Ethiopia. In January and February, at least 88 men, women and children were rendered from Kenya to Somalia. An unknown number were subsequently rendered on to Ethiopia. Ethiopia has now acknowledged custody of 41 of those prisoners. The other 47 remain missing.

Ethiopia appears to be copying the unacceptable and unlawful treatment of prisoners practised by the United States in the global war on terror: incommunicado detention, cross-border transfers without judicial proceedings, secret hearings by military officers without opportunity for prisoners to call witnesses or present a proper defence, the outcome of which is indefinite imprisonment, and abusive conditions and treatment.

Reports indicate that the United States and other western intelligence agencies are taking advantage of these conditions to conduct interrogations, contrary to obligations under international law. Furthermore, information obtained by Reprieve and Cageprisoners indicates that the United States has been involved in prisoner capture, interrogation and detention from the very beginning, and may hold sway over the fate of individual prisoners.

(NOTE: CAGE represents cases of individuals based on the remit of our work. Supporting a case does not mean we agree with the views or actions of the individual. Content published on CAGE may not reflect the official position of our organisation.)