British residents:
Former British resident Ahmed Belbacha, who returned to his native
Algeria in March 2013, was given a three-year suspended sentence and fined
500,000 Algerian dinars on the charge of membership of a foreign terrorist
organisation in Algeria. In 2009, while still held at Guantánamo, he was sentenced to 20
years in absentia on the same charges. He was arrested upon return to the
country but a judge ordered his release and demanded proof of the charges for
his case to be reheard.
NEWS:
Guantánamo Bay:
On 13 November,
5 Yemeni prisoners were released to Al-Ain in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). There
are currently 107 prisoners at Guantánamo. The five men are Ali Ahmad Mohammed
Al Razihi, Khalid Abd Al Jabbar Mohammed Uthman Al Qadasi, Adil Said Al Hajj
Ubayd Al Busays, Sulayman Awad Bin Uqayl Al Nahdi and Fahmi Salem Said Al
Asani, who are all considered low-level prisoners and have long been cleared
for release. As with all prisoners released from Guantánamo Bay, the men are subject
to restrictions imposed by the US, and are not free to meet people and have
their movements monitored, although the UAE authorities have not imprisoned
them and do not plan to prosecute them for any reason.
Sentencing in
the case of Majid Khan, 35, who pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in February
2012, has been delayed to 2018. A sentencing hearing was scheduled for February
2016, after he pleaded guilty to moving funds to finance a bombing in Indonesia
in 2003. He was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 prior to the bombing and was the
last person to be tried before a Guantánamo military tribunal, during which he
pleaded guilty under a plea bargain deal. Following arrest he disappeared into
the CIA’s global secret prison network. The US Senate’s partial
report into CIA torture last year shed some light on the horrific physical,
psychological and sexual torture he was subjected to in order to coerce him to
confess.
The periodic review board for “forever
prisoners” who are deemed too dangerous to release but cannot be tried has cleared
another Yemeni prisoner for release. Mansoor Abdul Rahman al Dayfi arrived at Guantánamo
on 9 February 2002. He has never been charged or tried. There are currently 48
prisoners cleared for release, the majority of who are from Yemen.
Younis Chekkouri, who was
released to Morocco in September, remains in jail there. A hearing scheduled
for 4 November has been put back to 3 December. He remains detained without
charge or trial.
Following a
similar incident involving former Australian prisoner Mamdouh Habib, on 2 November,
former French prisoner, Mourad Benchellali, who was released without charge or
trial in 2005, was arrested as he entered Canada where he was invited to give a
talk and take part in a documentary on fighting extremism. Earlier this year,
he was prevented from boarding a plane to Canada from France as he is on a US
no-fly list and the plane would pass through US airspace. This time he was
arrested by Canadian border agents on suspicion of posing a threat to national
security, even though he was invited to speak at a peace conference and about
preventing youth extremism by speaking of his own experiences. He was not
placed in immigration detention but sent to jail, with his French lawyers
unaware of his location. On 4 November, he returned home to France voluntarily.
Weeks later, he spoke at a forum at the Council of Europe about similar topics
where he faced no such hostility.
On 5 November,
following Barack Obama’s veto the first time, amendments to the National
Defense Authorization Act Bill 2016, which budgets military spending for the
year, were passed but did not affect the provisions on Guantánamo, which exclude
transfers to the US mainland and also a legal prohibition on transfers to
Yemen, Libya, Syria and Somalia. The amendments and the original veto related
to spending provisions. Obama was not expected to use Guantánamo as an excuse
to veto the bill again and instead signed the provisions into law on 25
November. Nonetheless, he issued a statement at the same time criticising the
restriction this allegedly places on his ability to close Guantánamo, and
highlighting the fact that executive action – to bring prisoners to the US
mainland – is still an option available to him. Each year the US government
passes the same restriction on prisoner transfers to the US under this law and
in actual fact changes the situation of almost all the prisoners at Guantánamo
Bay in no tangible way.
In early November,
the Obama administration again stated that it would soon present a plan to
close Guantánamo to Congress, yet less than two weeks later this was delayed, again,
and indefinitely. Obama has been claiming that a plan to close Guantánamo
(which is actually just likely to alter its address) since the summer.
On two separate
occasions this month, in a televised interview and on a trip to Manila, Philippines,
Barack Obama restated his famous claim that he will close Guantánamo and in Manila
stated that by January 2016 there should be less than 100 prisoners held
there. In 2009, Barack Obama had promised, and signed a provision to that end,
that Guantánamo would not exist by January 2010.
Extraordinary Rendition:
On 9 November, the UK
Supreme Court heard a claim by Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife Fatima Bouchar,
who were rendered to torture by the Libyan authorities under Colonel Gaddafi in
2004 with the cooperation of the UK and US authorities. In 2013, the High Court
in London ruled that they could not bring a claim against the former Labour
government and intelligence officers, such as former MI6 head Sir Mark Allen,
as it could damage diplomatic relations and national interests. Having won an
appeal, the case is currently before the Supreme Court to decide whether or not
it can proceed. The couple would like an apology and an admission of what was
done to them.
LGC Activities:
Our final Shut Guantánamo
demonstration for this year is on Thursday 3 December at 12-1pm outside the US
Embassy, Grosvenor Sq and 1.15-2.15pm outside Speaker’s Corner, Hyde Park,
Marble Arch. Join us: https://www.facebook.com/events/526642437509435/
The LGC will mark the
first anniversary of the partial publication of the US Senate’s CIA Torture
Report in December 2014 with a panel discussion on 8 December focusing on the
UK’s involvement and the personal, community and military ramifications of the use
of torture. Please join us and our expert panel of speakers for a necessary
discussion: http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/panel-discussion-on-8-december-we.html
The London Guantánamo
Campaign is continuing its weekly #GitmObama Twitter to raise awareness about
the plight and existence of Guantánamo prisoners. Tweets that can be used
during the action with this hashtag are provided in a pastebin (click on it and
copy & paste the tweets) and everyone everywhere (who is on Twitter) is
welcome to join in. The twitter storms are held on Mondays at 9pm GMT/ 4pm EST
/ 1pm PST. Please check our Twitter @shutguantanamo for further details and the
pastebin to take part.
