Julian Borger in Washington
Thursday October 23, 2003
The Guardian

As Washington prepares special commissions to judge inmates at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, 17 prisoners sentenced in controversial circumstances by a similar US-financed tribunal in nearby Grenada are marking two decades in jail.

In a report published today, Amnesty International, said the prisoners were given an unfair trial, which had "startling" similarities with the military tribunals due to begin work early next year in Guantanamo Bay. The human rights group called for a judicial review of the convictions or for the 17 prisoners to be released

The "Grenada 17" were detained by US troops after an invasion ordered by President Ronald Reagan 20 years ago this Saturday, in alleged response to a violent coup and the killing of the island's prime minister, Maurice Bishop, and nine others.

The detainees, including the coup leader, Bernard Coard, were treated in a similar way to prisoners in the current "war on terror", said Amnesty's UK media director, Lesley Warner.

"These people were initially held without charge in cages, before being tried before an unfair, ad-hoc tribunal. They were denied access to legal counsel and to documents needed for their defence," Mr Warner said.

"After sentencing, the Grenada 17 were held in tiny cells with lights left permanently on. It is entirely unacceptable that, 20 years on, more people are suffering near-identical abuses of their basic rights."

Plans for military commissions to try some of the 660 inmates at Guantanamo Bay have aroused controversy because of the limitations imposed on defence lawyers, and the absence of an independent appeals process.

Piers Bannister, who researched the Grenada report, added: "Here we have a situation just like Guantanamo Bay, just after a country was invaded and normal human rights were suspended."

The US handed the prisoners over to be tried by revolutionary courts originally set up by the Bishop government, financed by a US grant and staffed by a mix of Caribbean judges and lawyers. Eleven of the 17 prisoners claimed that they had been tortured.

According to the report, the jury was selected by a member of the prosecution who was appointed court registrar.

All 17 were found guilty, and 14 were sentenced to death for their role in the murder of Bishop and the nine other victims of the coup. According to official documents obtained by Amnesty International, a US diplomat met the chief prosecutor while their appeals were being considered.

The appeals were turned down, but the death penalties were later commuted. All 17 are still incarcerated, although one of them, Mr Coard's wife Phyllis, has been permitted to seek medical treatment outside her jail.

"As far as I'm concerned they did not have a fair trial," said Leslie Pierre, the publisher and editor of the Grenadian Voice, who has campaigned for the prisoners' release. "They were railroaded by the Caribbean prime ministers who were being coerced by the US."

Mr Pierre, who had been imprisoned by the revolutionary government and was freed by American troops, said the court in which the Grenada 17 were tried was unconstitutional, and the defendants were not allowed to see evidence which they could have used to point out discrepancies in the prosecution's case.

However, Grenada is deeply divided on the issue. Terrence Marryshow, a former Bishop supporter and now president of the People's Labour Movement, said that most citizens were in favour of keeping the 17 in jail.

"I believe they should stay there because the crimes they committed against the Grenadian people do not justify them being set free. The sentences were originally death sentences, so they have already benefited from mercy."