Still Happening: Execution Pending for US Citizen in Iraq (Military Commissions Act 2006)

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http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/11/7/193052/002 (with links)

Execution Pending for US Citizen in Iraq
by suskind
Tue Nov 07, 2006 at 04:30:52 PM PST

On Tuesday, October 17, 2006 Bush signed into Law the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

The commissions are authorized to sentence defendants to death, and defendants are prevented from invoking the Geneva Conventions as a source of rights during commission proceedings
A key provision in the act, which was signed into law strips US courts of jurisdiction to consider writs of habeas corpus filed by detainees who are detained as enemy combatants. The US Constitution gives prisoners the right to challenge their detentions in civil court. Jurist


On the 14th of October, after the Military Commissions Act of 2006 had been passed, a US citizen was sentenced to death in Iraq. The judge at an earlier hearing had dismissed the charges informing counsel there was insufficient material evidence. But at the trial two US officials appeared and insisted the verdict was unacceptable. Drawing the judge into an ex parte hearing they demanded the death penalty. The judge reversed his earlier ruling and returned the verdict to execute the prisoner.


"This court's failure to temporarily halt Mr. Munaf's transfer to Iraqi custody will not only send Mr. Munaf to his death without due process, it will eviscerate ... core protections against arbitrary and lawless executive action," Munaf's attorneys wrote.
Washington Post


Mohammad Munaf

Yesterday Lawyers at the Brennan Center for Justice in New York asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the United States from transferring Mohammed Munaf to custody of the Iraqi government. An Iraqi Court sentenced Mr. Munaf to death on October 12. Unless the Supreme Court acts to prevent his transfer, Mr., Munaf will be put to death.


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