juan mendez re: bradley manning

Pseudojim · Mar 15, 2012

UN expert criticises Manning's detention

The UN investigator on torture says imposing harsh conditions of detention on a US Army private accused of leaking classified documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks violates his presumption of innocence.

Juan Mendez said in a report to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council that the US military's "seriously punitive" detention of Private first class Bradley Manning, who has not been found guilty of any crime, is also "a violation of his right to physical and psychological integrity".

Manning declined to enter a plea last month to charges he engineered the biggest leak of classified information in US history.

Mendez said Manning was kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day for about 11 months after his arrest in May 2010. He was transferred in April 2011 to a US military prison, where he has contact with other prisoners.

In October, Mendez called for a global ban on solitary confinement in excess of 15 days.

He has been trying - so far unsuccessfully - to meet privately with Manning.

Last year, Mendez accused the United States of violating UN rules by refusing him unfettered access to the soldier.

In his latest report, obtained on Wednesday by The Associated Press, Mendez renewed his request for "a private and unmonitored meeting with Mr Manning to assess his conditions of detention".

Mendez, a law professor at American University in Washington, said in the report that solitary confinement, depending on its length and circumstances, can amount to a violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture.

He said that when he asked the US government for the reason it was holding an unindicted detainee in solitary confinement, "the government responded that his regimen was not 'solitary confinement' but 'prevention of harm watch'".

Mendez said the government did not offer details about what harm was being prevented.

In response to his request for information on the authority to impose an isolation regime, Mendez said the US government replied that "prison rules authorised the brig commander to impose it on account of the seriousness of the offence for which he would eventually be charged".
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juan mendez re: bradley manning

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