Janet Hamlin has been covering Guantánamo for seven years, making more than 25 trips to the prison. Her work provides an unusual view into the controversial military commissions proceedings - and the only view of the small number of detainees charged with crimes (of the 164 prisoners that remain at Guantánamo, only six face formal charges).
Sketching Guantánamo, a compilation of her work with accompanying essays, has just hit the shelves. The artist exchanged ideas and answered questions last week over the phone and Gmail chat:
This was the first time I was in court and the first time I saw the motions and the judge and lawyers from each side like I had seen in the movies and I didn't understand anything about the law and the court procedures. I wondered whether the trial would be fair or only what the American government wanted. They weren't using civilian law or military law and they made up a new law that doesn't offer anything in favour of the prisoner...
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