NEWS:
Guantánamo Bay
On 7 September, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
(IACHR), at its 164th session in Mexico City, heard the merits in a
case brought by former Algerian Guantánamo prisoner Djamel Ameziane against the
United States (Ameziane
v United States) for the abuse and arbitrary detention he suffered
during his 12 years at Guantánamo Bay, where he was never charged or tried. He
was then returned to Algeria by the Obama administration against his will where
he faced incommunicado detention and trial. At the time, he had been seeking
asylum elsewhere should he be released from Guantánamo, and had reasonable
grounds to fear persecution on his return to a country he had fled in the 1990s
on the basis of his Berber ethnic minority status. The case was brought by the
Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the Center for Justice and
International Law (CEJIL); this was a landmark hearing as it is the first time
a court with international jurisdiction in the Americas has heard such a merits
case. A ruling in favour of Ameziane by the court would put considerable
pressure on the US government and would add to the international law pressure
to close Guantánamo.
Lawyers at the hearing urged the IACHR to declare that the US
government violated his human rights and order reparations, including access to
adequate medical care, financial assistance for basic needs, return of his
personal property, and a public apology for what was done to him. Although
Djamel Ameziane was unable to attend the hearing, he submitted a statement to
the hearing setting out his case and his feelings towards his ordeal at
Guantánamo Bay and the difficulties he has faced in re-establishing his life
since his release: https://ccrjustice.org/sites/default/files/attach/2017/09/Ameziane_Statement_IACHR_MeritsHearing_0.pdf
In early September, the CCR also made an emergency request to the
courts for an independent medical evaluation of one of its remaining clients at
Guantánamo, 43-year old Yemeni Sharqawi Al-Hajj, who is currently on hunger
strike in protest at his ongoing detention. Al-Hajj suffers from a number of
illnesses that doctors “believe are symptoms of severe liver disease or another
potentially life-threatening underlying illness, or associated with his torture
in secret prisons for two years before Guantánamo” and which his lawyers
believe are being worsened by his hunger strike.
Nashwan
al Tamir, known to the US military as Abdul Hadi Al Iraqi, had surgery on his
spine twice this month. Needing surgery since January this year, neurosurgeons
arrived at Guantánamo ahead of Hurricane Irma to operate on his back. Awaiting
trial on non-capital charges, he uses a wheelchair and has had back problems
for more than a decade, which his lawyers attribute to his treatment in US
military detention. However, the US military claims he has been refusing
treatment. Surgeons had to be rushed in urgently after he complained that he
lost feeling in his lower body. His lawyer claims he has long been at risk of
paralysis and that the military is withholding information about his condition
from them. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/guantanamo/article171882522.html
On 21
September, they filed a petition to the courts to ask a federal judge to
intervene in his medical care, claiming that he only received the two
operations after they consulted external doctors on his condition. The doctors concluded
that “he was at risk of paralysis from a condition damaging his spine and
nervous system.”
They are
asking the judge to appoint and fund an independent medical expert to supervise
his care and to “order the prison to release his full medical records to
outside experts as well as to his medical team.” The request is extraordinary
and much secrecy surrounds medical practices at Guantánamo. In their petition,
his lawyers wrote, “The deliberate indifference and disregard of the United
States toward petitioner’s health and safety have put him at immediate risk of
permanent paralysis or worse, and constitute cruel and unusual punishment in
violation of the Eighth Amendment.”
His
lawyers have been forbidden from visiting him while he recovers and his October
pre-trial hearing has been cancelled. His next hearing is scheduled for
mid-December.
At a key national security conference this month, Brigadier
General John G. Baker, the Chief Defense Counsel of the Military Commissions
Defense Organization gave a speech at George Washington University Law School
in which he spoke critically of the military commission system at Guantánamo
stating that defence lawyers defend “the rule of law from a military commission
apparatus that is flawed in both design and execution” and described the
commissions as “a failed experiment”.
Omar Khadr was back in court in Edmonton, Canada, on 15 September to ask to have his remaining bail conditions loosened further, to include unfettered access to his sister Zaynab Khadr, who lives abroad. The judge, however, said that his sister is still an Al Qaeda supporter and maintained the restrictions that Khadr and his sister communicate only in English and in the presence of a court-appointed supervisor. The judge also refused to relax his travel restrictions, meaning he still has to ask permission to travel outside the province of Alberta within Canada. He has, however, had restrictions on his internet usage lifted.
Extraordinary rendition
On 22 September, a federal court ruled that three Iraqi citizens
tortured and held prisoner at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq by US contractor
CACI could prosecute the company and hold it responsible for their treatment.
The case was originally brought in 2008 and the ruling will allow the men to
hold the company directly responsible.
According to the CCR, which is bringing the case on behalf of the
men, “U.S. military investigators long ago concluded that CACI interrogators
conspired with U.S. soldiers, who were later court martialed, to “soften up”
detainees for interrogations; according to statements by co-conspirators. A
U.S. Army general referred to the treatment as “sadistic, blatant, and wanton”
criminal abuses. Al Ejaili, Al-Suba’e, and Al Shimari [the complainants] were
subjected to electric shocks, sexual assaults, sensory deprivation, mock
executions, stress positions, broken bones, deprived of oxygen, food and water,
stripped and kept naked, forced to witness the rape of a female prisoner, as
well as experienced other dehumanizing acts of torture and threats to themselves
and their families.”
LGC Activities:
The September Shut Guantánamo! monthly demonstration was on 7 September.
Our next monthly demonstration is on Thursday 5 October. It is a special
demonstration to mark 16 years of the war in Afghanistan, which gave rise to
detention at Guantánamo and hosted a number of secret prisons run by the CIA.
We will stand in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan and particularly the
large number of refugees being repatriated from across Europe and elsewhere to
Afghanistan even though the conflict is escalating as President Trump sends
more troops there. This demonstration will be outside the US Embassy, Grosvenor
Square, W1A, ONLY from 12-2pm: https://www.facebook.com/events/1470694673046702/
