The U.S. new security law allowing the military to detain American terrorist suspects without trial may entail grave consequences and contradicts international law, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.
Last December, U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law the national defense authorization act, which contains provisions regulating the detention, interrogation, and prosecution of suspected terrorists.
The new security law allows the U.S. military to indefinitely detain without trial American terrorism suspects who could then be shipped to Guantánamo Bay.
“On the whole, the law formulations are quite vague… The law contributes to wider exterritorial use of American criminal and anti-terrorist legislation in relation to citizens of third countries,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
By expanding the powers of the U.S. military as stipulated in the new security law, Washington breaches its obligations under the 1966 international covenant on civil and political rights relating to the ban on the illegitimate deprivation of liberty, tortures and cruel treatment of imprisoned persons, and also linked with the provision of fair justice, the statement said.
“The new U.S. legislation also runs counter to its (U.S.) obligations on international humanitarian law,” the statement said.
