Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-05-31-Speech-3-089"

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"en.20060531.12.3-089"2
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"Madam President, Mrs Plassnik, Mrs Ferrero-Waldner, firstly, we should like to say that terrorism is contemptuous of human beings and that the United States has been hit appallingly by terrorism. That is a factor that must form the background to any criticism we make. We must appreciate that this is terrorism directed against our values and our legal system and that it raises concerns about the danger in which it places us. On the other hand, resistance to terrorism should not be to the detriment of our own values, for then terrorism will have won. For this reason, there has been a broad international debate, which has also led to changes. Following my visit, I am convinced that the situation and the images familiar to us from 2001 and 2002 no longer exist. Nor do I believe that direct physical torture is taking place, as presumably it had been doing, although I obviously have no proof of this. Moreover, the fact that great efforts are taking place within the United States, together with a debate designed to put an end to torture and the like is shown by, for example, the initiatives taken by Senator McCain. What we have here, then, is not typical behaviour towards America on the part of Europe but a debate being conducted in all our societies. On the other hand – and, on this matter, I agree completely with the Commissioner and Mrs Plassnik – human rights and international humanitarian law must be observed. Although our system of values does in fact entail the risk of a prisoner reoffending after he has been released, we should be giving up our freedom if we were to abandon that same system of values. is one of the basic principles of our civilisation. True enough: in the situation in which we now find ourselves, the risk is far smaller if prisoners who might otherwise join the ever growing ranks of new suicide bombers and so inspire further mobilisation are instead kept in prison. On the basis purely of an assessment of the risks involved, releasing people is probably not the right road to go down. As matters stand, however, people are kept in prison even if they are acquitted. If a prisoner is deemed to have been 80%, but still not 100%, debriefed, he is kept in jail. If a new concrete prison is built, this time devoid of windows, we have, to say the least, a problem. Although what we have here is not a war in the classical sense of the word, we must try, via the International Court of Justice and other international arrangements, to get to grips with this issue. I believe that too much is being expected of the Member States in this area."@en1
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"In dubio pro reo"1

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