European Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmstrom has called on U.S. President Barack Obama to keep his promise and close the prison in Guantanamo.
“[It is] a disgrace that prisoners are still held [without] trial. President Obama, [it's] time to live up to your promise,” Malmstrom wrote in her Twitter account.
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. Currently more than 170 prisoners remain in Guantanamo since it was made into a permanent U.S. penitentiary in 2001. Most of them are terrorism suspects.
In 2008, Obama in his presidential campaign promised to close the prison by 2010. In January 2009, Obama gave instructions to shut the network of secret prisons and close the Guantanamo detention camp within a year.
But in March 2011, Obama resumed military trials for terror suspects who remain in Guantanamo. Moreover, Obama drafted a set procedure that allows the detainment of the prisoners in Guantanamo if they are a serious threat to U.S. security.
