Maya Foa, Director of Reprieve, commenting on the leaked letter from Sajid Javid to US Attorney General Jeff Sessions
Monday, 23 July 2018
Sajid Javid has undermined the UK’s decades-long opposition to the death penalty and Guantánamo Bay in an attempt to outsource our justice system to the US.
There is no reason why people accused of murdering British citizens should not face British justice in a British court. Justice is not served by turning such individuals over to a US justice system which has an appalling record of trying such cases, in large part as a result of torture and mistreatment.
Guantánamo Bay has, over a period of 16 years, seen repeated attempts to hold any judicial process fail. Only four out of 780 detainees have been convicted in the military courts system.
The death penalty, as the Government has accepted many times, is not effective as a deterrent and has led to gross miscarriages of justice.
Instead of kowtowing to the Trump Administration, Sajid Javid should use the laws already in place to bring these cases before a British court.
