UN rights envoy hopes for access to Guantanamo

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) - A United Nations human rights investigator said on Thursday he hoped to interview terrorism suspects being held at Guantanamo Bay as part of a visit to the United States later this month.

Martin Scheinin, U.N. special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, said he planned to probe U.S. anti-terrorism laws, interview security detainees and attend "high-profile" trials during the May 16-25 visit.

He would also raise the issues of CIA "extraordinary rendition" and secret detention with senior U.S. officials.

But it was not clear whether he would get clearance to visit the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where nearly 400 inmates with alleged ties to al Qaeda or the Taliban are being held, most for years without charge.

"Guantanamo is not formally off the table at this stage but time is getting very short. We will see," Scheinin told Reuters in a telephone interview.

The independent U.N. investigator, a constitutional and international law professor in Finland, reports to the U.N. Human Rights Council, which holds its next session in mid-June.

A centerpiece of his probe would be the Military Commissions Act, signed into law by President George W. Bush last October, which authorizes tough interrogation of terrorism suspects and a new system of military trials, Scheinin said.

The law was prompted by a Supreme Court ruling that said Bush lacked the legislative authority in setting up his first system of military commissions after the deadly Sept 11 attacks.