"Time to shut US torture camp" says MEP

6.01.04pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 31st May 2006

Liz Lynne, Lib Dem MEP and member of the Subcommittee on Human Rights, today urged her European colleagues to unite behind the demand for the closure of the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In a speech ahead of the European Parliament vote on a resolution condemning the detention centre, Liz Lynne, one of the authors of the resolution, argued that there was no place in the world for a camp described by the UN as a place of illegal torture.

It is estimated that there are currently around 480 people of 35 different nationalities being held in the camp.

Speaking in Brussels today the Euro-MP said:

"The Council must put real pressure on the US government at next month's EU-US summit to close down Guantanamo Bay. They must either release prisoners if they have no evidence against them or otherwise try them under international law. Anything else will be a travesty of justice."

"How many more reports do we have to read about gross violations of human rights? The latest report from the UN Committee Against Torture makes it clear that torture techniques, that should be abhorrent to any decent person, are still being used in Guantanamo Bay."

"We heard similar torture allegations from my constituent Moazzam Begg, who was last year released from the prison camp and in successive reports."

"We also need answers about whether dozens of children have been incarcerated there as recently alleged. The European Council must be tough and not let the American Government off the hook."

Ends

Notes to Editors

1. On 15 May, the US Pentagon released a list of 759 past and present prisoners, but it is not clear that this list is complete

2. Eight Britons have been held there since it opened in 2002.

3. Evidence gained through torture can be used against the defendant. This goes against the Convention Against Torture.

4. A constituent of Liz Lynne's, Moazzam Begg, was released from Guantanamo Bay detention camp last year and made allegations of torture against the US authorities.