EU urged to press U.S. to close Guantanamo

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=6554762&cKey=1143123929000

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union countries must press the United States to close the Guantanamo Bay prison and should consider taking in detainees to put them on trial, the top U.N. investigator into torture said on Thursday.

U.N. investigators urged the United States last month to close the Guantanamo camp, saying it violated a host of human rights including a ban on torture and the right to fair trial.

"It is important that the EU (plays) its part in convincing the U.S.," Manfred Nowak, the U.N.'s rapporteur on torture and one of the investigators into Guantanamo, told reporters in Brussels.

Many of the 500 inmates in the prison at the U.S. naval base in Cuba have been held for four years without trial. The prisoners were mainly detained in Afghanistan.

Or is that a dumb question?