A crime against humanity

A few months ago, Chris Trotter described the imprisonment of Ahmed Zaoui as "a crime against humanity" because of the extreme cruelty of keeping someone in solitary confinement for prolonged periods. And now we're seeing the results:

Trauma consultant and professor of psychology, Tony Taylor has conducted a three-day examination of Mr Zaoui and concludes that he has been "mentally damaged" as a result of his solitary confinement.

Keith Locke calls this "mental torture", and I'd have to agree. And it's made all the worse because it is being done on the basis of "evidence" that is simply bullshit.

What the fuck are we doing? We've kept a man in solitary confinement for ten months, driven him insane, because our police and security services are paranoid loons who can't distinguish a conspiracy theorist's fantasies from reality, and because our Minister of Immigration cannot admit that she was wrong.

This has to stop. Now. What we have done to this man is unconscionable. We have violated some of the core principles of this country - the presumption of innocence, the right to a fair trial, the right to due process - and all because the government wants its own side-act in the war on terror. Fuck that. Zaoui should be released, and he should not just receive a grovelling apology, but Lianne Dalziel's head on a platter.