NEWS:
Guantánamo Bay:
In a civil claim
brought by the widow of Christopher Speer, the man Omar Khadr is alleged to
have killed in battle, and Layne Morris, the soldier who was injured in the
same battle, a Utah court awarded a final amount of $134.2 million after
Khadr’s lawyers refused to respond to the case and he was thus not represented.
As a result, the award was made by default (i.e. without trial and consideration
of the merits of the case). It is unlikely that either Tabetha Speer or Layne
Morris will receive any of that amount as they will have to find someone to
collect for them in Canada, and it is unlikely that any court will enforce a
foreign judgment based on a case that allowed torture evidence.
In a rare act of
kindness towards the prisoners facing trial, in April, military judge Colonel
Vance Spath, hearing the case of Abd Al-Nashiri who faces the death penalty if
convicted, ordered the US government to perform an MRI scan to gain evidence of
brain trauma or other neuropsychological infirmities before his trial proceeds.
This followed a report from a torture expert. As a result, in June, the Navy
Bureau of Medicine and Surgery put out a request to lease an MRI for several
months to perform the scan.
The war crimes
tribunal of Abdul Hadi Al-Iraqi, accused of attacks on US interests in
Afghanistan, was due to start in mid-July, however the case has now been put
back to 14 September. On the first day, the judge ruled there was a conflict as
his military lawyer is also defending one of the defendants in the 9/11 case. As
a result Al-Iraqi said that he might release his whole defence team. He had
previously been assigned a new lawyer. Following a closed hearing, the case was
then adjourned until September, continuing the impasse of no hearings having
actually been held since March this year.
Two prisoner
review board hearings were held in July: on 14 July, Salman Yahya Hassan
Muhammad Rabei’i, 36, who has never been charged or tried had his
hearing, 10 minutes of which were unclassified and during which his lawyer
explained that his client would like to live a normal life upon release. Like
most of the other prisoners at Guantánamo, he is suspected but not known to
have been a member of al Qaeda. He was captured by the Northern Alliance in
Afghanistan in 2001, who bought foreign nationals from tribal warlords and sold
them to the US military for a $5000 bounty.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/07/14/uk-usa-guantanamo-rabei-i-idUKKCN0PO2D720150714
On 27 July, the last Kuwaiti prisoner at Guantánamo, Fayiz al-Kandari, came back before the board. In 2014, his fellow countryman Fawzi al-Odah was cleared by a review and repatriated whereas al-Kandari’s continued detention was ordered.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/27/usa-guantanamo-suspect-kandari-idUSKCN0Q11OB20150727
Although the US
Department of Defense decided not to pursue charges against a military nurse
who eventually refused orders to force-feed hunger striking prisoners at Guantánamo
– such a case would reveal more than the US is prepared to make public about
its force-feeding policy – it has threaten to revoke the security clearance of
the nurse making it difficult for him to receive benefits, possible discharge
from the navy and difficulty in finding work later. In the same week, he was given
an ethics award by the American Nursing Association for his actions.
On 24 July, two
former prisoners were arrested in Belgium on charges of recruiting for the war
in Syria and membership of a terrorist organisation. One was Mousa Zemmouri, a
Belgian national released without charge or trial in 2005, and the other is
Soufiane A., an Algerian national released to that country in 2008, and who was
the victim of an extraordinary rendition from Georgia. He is alleged to have
travelled to Syria, but such an allegation is likely baseless as the US keeps a
close eye on the actions and whereabouts of released prisoners. The two were
arrested with three others, only accused of armed robbery, at an address in
Antwerp at which they are alleged to have been in the process of carrying out a
burglary. Following his entry into Belgium, the Belgian authorities kept a
close eye on Soufiane A.
Similar charges
have also been brought against former Guantánamo prisoners Moazzam Begg in the
UK – although the charges were thrown out on the basis of secret evidence – and
in Spain against Lahcen Ikassrien, a former Moroccan prisoner. Indicted at the
end of last year, no trial date has been set for him and 13 other
co-defendants.
On 27 July, the
US government submitted a petition for an en banc (full panel of judges) rehearing
of the al-Bahlul military commission appeal case it has lost in full on two occasions,
including in a previous en banc hearing. The outcome of the earlier decisions
has seen convictions of a number of Guantánamo prisoners quashed. The US
government is questioning some of the issues in the decision made last month.
It has yet to be accepted.
On 17 July, Navy
Lieutenant Commander Bill Kuebler, 44, who was one of Omar Khadr’s military
lawyers at Guantánamo, died of cancer. He defended Khadr during pre-trial
hearings in 2007-2009. It has since emerged that at least 9 people who have
worked on military tribunal cases at Guantánamo have contracted various types
of cancer, including brain, lymphoma and colon. Kuebler’s is the third such
death in 13 months. Lawyers have long expressed health concerns about the
facilities where such tribunals are held.
The US navy said that
it was aware of the claims and launched an investigation at the end of July.
On 30 July, a US
judge rejected an application by a Guantánamo prisoner held at the facility
without charge or trial since 2002 claiming that there were no legal
grounds to continue holding him and other prisoners now that the war in
Afghanistan – the rationale for holding the men – was officially over. The judge
dismissed the claim by Yemeni Muktar Yahya Najee al-Warafi on the basis that
ongoing warfare and involvement in Afghanistan by the US shows this not to be
the case. A lawyer for al-Warafi said that the judge’s decision is a “rubber
stamp for endless detention” and that he would review the opinion and whether
to appeal.
Another similar
application is pending by Kuwaiti prisoner Fayiz Al-Kandari.
The ruling, in
spite of its legal nature, shows the very arbitrary nature of the US’ detention
policy as the US was very careful to ensure it handed over its remaining
prisoners at Bagram before the end of 2014, including releasing two to Yemen
and at least one to US federal detention.
Extraordinary Rendition:
On 30 July, a trial
started in Virginia of a former Bagram prisoner, Russian national Irek Hamidullin, who had spent years at the detention and torture
camp before being taken to the US last year to stand trial in a US federal
court on terrorism charges related to an attack on a US military base in
Afghanistan. He faces 15 counts, including providing material support to
terrorism and trying to destroy US military aircraft. The US attorney general
decided not to call for the death penalty in this case and instead he could face a
life sentence. The case is likely to raise many issues related to the status of
combatants in Afghanistan and the nature of the US war there.
Following restrictive
reforms to the law on the application of universal jurisdiction in Spain,
whereby crimes against humanity, such as torture, can be tried anywhere, a
Spanish judge José de la Mata decided to close a case against the US brought by
four former Guantánamo prisoners in Spain for the torture they suffered there.
The judge said that unless the applicants had Spanish nationality at the time
the case could not be heard.
In response, the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights
(ECCHR) and the US Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), along with lawyers
in Spain, have launched a legal challenge against this decision. The four
former prisoners include British residents Jamil El-Banna and Omar Deghayes,
against whom extradition proceedings were brought and later dropped by Spain
upon their return to the UK in 2007.
LGC Activities:
The LGC July Shut
Guantánamo demonstration was attended by 4 people. The August demo will be on
Thursday 13 August (one week later than usual): https://www.facebook.com/events/930722180323099/
The LGC will be
holding only its second campaigns meeting this year in September – date and
venue to be confirmed. At this stage, we start planning our annual event to
mark the anniversary of Guantánamo opening in January (this year’s successful
event saw as many people outside the US Embassy in London as there were outside
the White House) and other actions to raise awareness about the plight of all
the prisoners.
If you would like to
get more involved in the campaign and share any ideas you may have ahead of
this meeting, please get in touch by sending us an e-mail. Thank you!
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