The administration of US President Barack Obama has announced it will bring five Guantanamo Bay detainees to the US for prosecution in federal courts.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Ali Abd al-Aziz and Mustafa al Hawsawi, were all abducted and held in illegal secret CIA-run detention until 2006, when they were transferred to Guantanamo Bay.
While detained in the CIA-run prisons, the five men were subjected to what the US administration has called "enhanced interrogation techniques". These abuses amount to torture, including "water-boarding". They were described in memoranda released in August by the Obama administration.
Other abuses outlined in the memos include: mock executions, shackling and racking the men while naked, using a power drill to frighten the men during interrogations and threats to rape and kill family members.
Allowing the men to go to trial in US federal courts is a small positive step, but the Obama administration is still allowing some to go through the internationally condemned and fatally flawed military commissions process.
The 2009 Military Commissions Act has only recently been passed in the US. It replaces the 2006 act, under which three men were convicted, including Australian citizen David Hicks.
Obama had described this system as unfair and the 2009 act makes some minor improvements. However, it still does not come close to meeting international fair trial standards.
For example, the military commissions system allows for political interference, accepts evidence obtained through coercion and definitely cannot be classed as independent, fair and transparent.
In another flout of international law, the 2009 Military Commissions Act allows for the prosecution of children.
One of those to be tried by the commissions is 23-year-old Canadian citizen Omar Khadr, who was detained by the US as a child.
US authorities claim Khadr threw a grenade at US soldiers in Afghanistan.
Even if this claim is true, under international law, no child should be punished for acts perpetrated by their recruiters.
Evidence that throws doubt on the grenade throwing claims has been ignored and covered over, as well as the evidence of Khadr's torture and abuse.
The Canadian government is also treating international law with contempt. It has refused to abide by a court ruling ordering the repatriation of Khadr.
In fact, Prime Minister Steven Harper and his administration have appealed the decision, and worked diligently to cover up the complicity of Canadian officials in Khadr's torture and ill treatment.
It is truly outrageous that while some detained illegally at Guantanamo are given the right to be tried in a court of law, others are left with a second-class system rigged to get convictions.
It is an obvious cover-up of the war crimes perpetrated by the US and Canadian governments against a young man, as well as all the others languishing in Guantanamo Bay.