U.S. Military Clearing The Way For Execution Of Prisoners At Guantanamo

US to extend military executions rules to Guantanamo Bay

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems...1/s1554541.htm

By North America correspondent Michael Rowland
3/1/2006

The US military is clearing the way for executions of condemned terror suspects to take place at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

The army has just changed the rules governing the location of military executions.

The new regulations are primarily aimed at service personnel sentenced to death at a military court martial.

Previously executions could only take place at a military jail in Kansas but now death sentences can be carried out anywhere, including the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.

The army has confirmed the new rules will also apply to any Guantanamo detainee sentenced to death at a specially convened military tribunal.

The move worries anti-death penalty campaigner David Elliot.

"The death penalty should not work in a sequestered manner where the public can not see what's happening," he said.

None of the 10 terror suspects charged with war crimes, including South Australian David Hicks, are facing the death penalty, although it could be sought in future cases.