[JURIST] Amnesty International urged the US to abandon the military commission system [press release] and try Guantanamo Bay detainees in the federal courts in a report [text] released Thursday, just days before the US military is poised to begin military commission proceedings against David Hicks [JURIST news archive]. Amnesty's report - Justice delayed and justice denied? Trials under the Military Commissions Act - outlines perceived problems with the military commission system set up to try Guantanamo Bay detainees:

The military commissions will operate in something approaching a legal vacuum. Defendants cannot turn to international human rights law, the Geneva Conventions or the US Constitution for protection. The military commissions are part of a universe absent of judicial remedy for detainees and their families. Even if a detainee is acquitted, he may be returned to indefinite detention as a so-called "enemy combatant".