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For Immediate Release
Contact: media@aclu.org

Obama Administration Should Not Institutionalize Indefinite Detention For Guantanamo Prisoners, Says ACLU

Group Responds To Proposed Executive Order

WASHINGTON

According
to news reports, the Obama administration is considering an executive
order that would establish a periodic review process for Guantanamo
detainees who are being held indefinitely without charge or trial. The
American Civil Liberties Union opposes the indefinite detention of
prisoners at Guantanamo, some of whom have been held in U.S. custody
without charge or trial for as many as eight years.

The following can be attributed to Laura W. Murphy, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office:

"It is impossible to evaluate the review process in the proposed
executive order without seeing it, but we have serious concerns about
any order that would institutionalize indefinite detention for
Guantanamo detainees. Where credible evidence exists against Guantanamo
detainees, they should be charged and prosecuted under our criminal
justice system, which has a successful record of prosecuting terrorism
suspects and is the only way to provide the fair and reliable outcomes
that Americans deserve."

There have been hundreds of successfully completed terrorism trials in the federal courts, both before and after 9/11.

The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.

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