A call for draconian control over the lawyer-detainee interaction has been blasted by lawyers who claim such restrictions will increase suicide at the infamous Guantanamo detention centre in Cuba.
The Justice Department has asked the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to limit the number of lawyer visits allowed to three after an initial face-to-face meeting, to tighten censorship of mail from attorneys and to give the military more control over what they can discuss with detainees.
Lawyers for detainees believe that if their visits are limited, detainee desperation will deepen and more will try to kill themselves.
On June 10, 2006, two Saudi detainees and one Yemeni was reported to have hanged themselves with sheets.
“Visits by lawyers are one of the few bright spot these men have,” attorney Zachary Katznelson told The Associated Press from Guantanamo, where he is spending two weeks to meet with 18 client detainees.
Many detainees are kept in isolation in small cells with no natural light. With no prison sentence having been pronounced except for Australian Hicks, the detainees do not know when they will get out, if ever.
Many have been there for more than five years.
Clive Stafford Smith, an attorney for several Guantanamo detainees, said: “The level of depression is soaring, I am afraid.”
Attorney Stephen Oleskey, who represents six Algerians, said more suicides are “a real risk” if the court restricts lawyer-client contacts.
“I’ve seen firsthand the mental conditions of my clients deteriorate in isolation,” Oleskey said from Boston. “And I think the impact of further restrictions would be dramatic.”
