Sunday, July 3, 2016

Who is Ravil Mingazov?




Ravil Mingazov is a Russian citizen who has been detained in Guantanamo Bay since 2002, despite having no charges brought against him or even accusations of wrongdoing.  Under the most basic precepts of American law, Ravil Mingazov is an innocent man, being held extra-judicially.

Six years ago, in 2010, Mingazov's attorney Gary Thompson brought Mingavoz’s case to an independent (non-military) federal judge "determined that there was no support whatsoever for the government’' case and independently ruled that he should be released."  They've got nothing on him.

Despite being cleared for release, Mingazov is being held because of a series of appeals by the government that have resulted in stays of his release.

His attorney Gary Thompson:  "I don’t think there’s any doubt that the government has been engaging in intentional delay at every step of the Guantanamo story, whether it’s the military commissions, whether it’s the DOJ lawyers and habeas proceedings ... all of it has been this long, torturous, Kafkaesque legal maze that just goes on and on and on and is really quite frustrating."

Americans need to accept that the fact that the worst abuses have not been of any prisoners' legal or human rights (indeed, the US has declared they essentially have no such rights) ... the worst abuses have been of American principles of justice, morality, and of the standards that defined "civilized behaviour."

The worst abuses have always been of MY principles and (I hope) your own.

Look, they shat on our principles, and I am personally offended by that.   Yeh, I do take it personally.

(On this independence Day, consider defending your own liberty by standing up and defending that of someone who has been rendered helpless to defend his or her own)


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