US should apologise to Guantanamo Bay inmates for treatment: UN expert

A United Nations expert said on Monday (Jun 26) that US government treatment of Guantanamo Bay inmates was cruel, inhuman and degrading under international law and called for Washington to apologise and provide reparation.

"I observed that after two decades of custody, the suffering of those detained is profound, and it's ongoing," Fionnuala Ni Aolain said at the United Nations after completing the first official visit by a UN expert to the detention facility in Cuba.

"Every single detainee I met with lives with the unrelenting harms that follow from systematic practices of rendition, torture and arbitrary detention," she said, citing what she called the undue use of restraints and near constant surveillance as current shortcomings.