My Take | US in no position to set itself up as judge and jury of other countries’ records

One of the world’s most courageous and longest-serving prisoners of conscience is also someone you have probably never heard of. The American government and US news media have made sure of that. This is especially glaring considering the US State Department has just announced the winners of its annual Global Human Rights Defender Awards. It is indeed the height of cruel irony that the world’s worst warmongering nation, consistent violator of global human rights and perpetrator of war crimes has set itself up as the judge and jury of other countries’ records, especially those it deems hostile.

However, I have no doubt those 10 winners deserve recognition, including Ding Jiaxi, a mainland Chinese human rights lawyer associated with the New Citizens’ Movement, who was tried in secret for “subversion of state power” last year with no verdict announced. If only that recognition came from a more credible source.

Many independent human rights advocates would have recognised Ana Belén Montes, a former US defence intelligence analyst who was jailed for providing secret information to the Cuban government to defend itself against American aggression.

She was released last month after serving 20 of a 25-year sentence. A Puerto Rican, she has released a statement denouncing the six-decade US blockade of Cuba and the neglect of the hardships endured by the Puerto Rican people by the US government.

She is a traitor so far as America is concerned, just like Edward Snowden is. But to the rest of the world, they are heroes for exposing their own government’s crimes and malevolence.

At her trial, she said: “I obeyed my conscience rather than the law … giving the island [Cuba] classified information to help it defend itself.