NEWS:
Guantánamo Bay:
There are currently 41
prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. On 5 January, the Obama administration sent four
Yemeni prisoners to Saudi Arabia. The four men are Mohammed Rajab Sadiq Abu
Ghanem, Salem Ahmed Hadi bin Kanad, Abdullah Yehya Yousef al-Shibli and
Mohammed Bawazir. Bawazir, who protested his detention with a lengthy hunger
strike, had in January 2016 refused to be resettled in Europe, preferring to be
sent to an Arabic-speaking country. He and Shibli were cleared for release in
2010 and the other two were cleared by the periodic review board for release
last year. The men have families in Saudi Arabia with whom they were reunited.
Ten prisoners were
released to Oman on a temporary basis on 15 January.
One day before leaving
office, the Obama administration transferred a Saudi prisoner back to Saudi
Arabia and three other prisoners – a Yemeni, an Afghan and a Russian – to the
UAE.
Five prisoners who
have been cleared for release by the Obama administration remain at Guantánamo.
There were 242 prisoners at the facility in 2009 when Obama became president.
On 18 January, Sufyian
Barhoumi, an Algerian prisoner who had been cleared for release, lost an emergency
court petition demanding he is released before Trump becomes president and his
chance to be released is lost. Although cleared by the board, the Department of
Defense refused to allow his release. Donald Trump’s tweet from early January
about not releasing any further prisoners was used as evidence in the case. The
case was rejected as the judge decided not to overrule the power of the
Department of Defense to continue his detention.
In spite of tweets by
Donald Trump before he became president that he will not release any more
prisoners and will instead load the facility up with “some bad dudes” as well
as an alleged draft executive order published in the New York Times
claiming that the Trump administration will resume waterboarding and other
torture methods used by the CIA under the extraordinary rendition programme,
thus far under Trump Guantánamo has continued to function exactly as it did
under Obama. Guantánamo is not a priority for the current administration and
there is no timetable for any possible orders related to its future. Instead,
on Wednesday 25 January, the first military commission hearing of 2017 and
under the Trump era commenced in the case of 5 men accused of involvement in
the September 2001 attacks in New York. The hearing was however suspended after
a few hours as one of the death penalty defence lawyers, Cheryl T. Bormann, had
broken her arm and was unable to attend and the judge said the pre-trial
hearing could not continue without her. Ironically, the defendant she
represents has been trying to fire her for over a year and does not communicate
with his defence team whom he would like replaced. The hearing has now been set
back to March.
In addition, the first
periodic review hearing of 2017 is scheduled for 9 February, whereby prisoners
can be cleared for release. The first prisoner to come before the board under
Trump is Omar Muhammad Ali al-Rammah.
On 11 January, the
fifteenth anniversary of the opening of Guantánamo Bay, former Belgian prisoner
Moussa Zemmouri who was released in 2005 brought a complaint against Belgium at
the UN Committee on Torture in Geneva for the lack of assistance he was given
by his state during the three years he was imprisoned at Guantánamo. He was
assisted by his lawyers and a German NGO. The claim relates to the fact that
Belgium knew of the ill-treatment and torture he was subjected to but did not
prevent it. A complaint he brought in Belgium against the authorities in 2010 is
ongoing and he has been subject to harassment by the authorities to deter him.
Former Moroccan prisoner Younis Chekkouri, who was released to Morocco in September 2015 where he continued to be held until February 2016, has been referred to the district court as the criminal court has ruled that it cannot hear the case related to terrorism charges.
http://www.yabiladi.com/articles/details/50073/dossier-chekkouri-ex-detenu-guantanamo-transfere.html
Extraordinary
rendition:
In a series of linked judgments related to the UK authorities’ involvement in extraordinary rendition and torture overseas, the UK Supreme Court ruled on 17 January that Libyan rendition victims Abdel Hakim Belhadj and his wife Fatima Bouchar, who were kidnapped and rendered to torture in Libya from Southeast Asia with the help of the UK and US authorities in 2004, can sue former foreign secretary Jack Straw and MI6 chief Sir Mark Allen. However, in other claims brought by victims of rendition in Iraq and Afghanistan the court ruled in favour of the government and in a case brought by a former Iraqi prisoner it ruled that the UK military could capture and detain “enemy combatants”. This decision may affect hundreds of claims currently pending against the Ministry of Defence for prisoner abuse in Iraq.
In a series of linked judgments related to the UK authorities’ involvement in extraordinary rendition and torture overseas, the UK Supreme Court ruled on 17 January that Libyan rendition victims Abdel Hakim Belhadj and his wife Fatima Bouchar, who were kidnapped and rendered to torture in Libya from Southeast Asia with the help of the UK and US authorities in 2004, can sue former foreign secretary Jack Straw and MI6 chief Sir Mark Allen. However, in other claims brought by victims of rendition in Iraq and Afghanistan the court ruled in favour of the government and in a case brought by a former Iraqi prisoner it ruled that the UK military could capture and detain “enemy combatants”. This decision may affect hundreds of claims currently pending against the Ministry of Defence for prisoner abuse in Iraq.
Fifty years after the UK
government expelled the residents of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian
Ocean, and then leased the largest island Diego Garcia to the US military to
use as a strategic military base, which was once used as a torture prison, on 1
January the British and US authorities signed a new 20-year lease for the
military base.
LGC Activities:
The LGC marked the 15th
anniversary of the Guantánamo Bay prison camp opening on 11 January 2002 with a
sad clown protest outside the National Gallery in Trafalgar. Around 40 people
joined the action which saw activists dressed as clowns hold up a banner
stating “15 years of Guantánamo is no laughing manner!” The event attracted the
attention of passers-by who saw the colourful outfits and then realised the purpose
of the protest. http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/15-years-of-guantanamo-how-many-us.html
The LGC joined the
protest outside the US Embassy to mark the inauguration of President Trump.
Although several hundred people joined this protest organised by Stand Up to
Racism, in 2009 the LGC protested alone outside the US Embassy against the
ongoing injustice of Guantanamo and CIA torture, which have not changed over
the past 8 years. The LGC protest on 20 January was noted by the BBC report http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-us-canada-38682565
“A man in an orange jump suit and a clown mask has a
banner reading "15 years in Guantanamo is no joke".”
The LGC also joined
the Women’s March on 21 January to remind the world that Guantánamo remains
open with 41 prisoners. While the general public has become aware of the
discriminatory and racist practices of the US administration since 9/11 in
recent days this is exactly what we have been protesting against – and in
solidarity with other discriminated minorities – for over almost 11 years.
Our first Shut
Guantánamo! Demo of 2017 and under Donald Trump’s presidency also marks the
tenth anniversary of our regular protests. We are outside the US Embassy at
12-1pm and outside Speaker’s Corner, Hyde Park, at 1.15-2.15pm on https://www.facebook.com/events/706025256245152/
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