A French legislator published an open letter Friday calling for the “immediate” closure of the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where more than half the 166 remaining prisoners have joined an almost three-month-long hunger strike.
Jean-Jacques Candelier, a Communist member of a leftist coalition in the National Assembly (lower house), addressed his comments to the US embassy on his Facebook page.
“Guantanamo is not necessary for the security of the United States,” he wrote. “This prison hampers counter-terrorism cooperation and is a recruiting tool for extremists, in the words of President Obama himself.”
Obama is facing renewed pressure to fulfil his 2008 campaign pledge to close the detention facility as 100 of Guantanamo’s 166 inmates continue to refuse nourishment. Twenty-one detainees are being force-fed with nasal tubes, a practice the UN high commissioner for human rights said this week could be classified as “torture” and in contravention of international law.
Read more: French MP calls for closure of Guantanamo - FRANCE - FRANCE 24
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