Guantánamo Bay
On 31 May, the European Court of Human Rights found Lithuania and
Romania complicit in running secret CIA torture facilities. A complaint brought
by Guantánamo prisoner Abu Zubaydah against Lithuania found that between 2005
and 2006 the state had hosted a secret CIA torture prison, knew he was being
tortured there and then allowed him to be transferred to further torture
elsewhere. Abd Al Nashiri, currently facing the death penalty at Guantánamo
successfully sued Romania for holding him for 18 months at a CIA detention
facility called Detention Site Black it ran between 2003 and 2005. The court
found both states guilty of multiple rights’ abuses and ordered the states to
pay the respective victims €100,000 each.
Pre-trial hearings at the Guantánamo Bay military commissions do
not take place during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan; thus, brief hearings
took part prior to Ramadan in early May and will resume again in late June.
During the pre-trial hearing in early May, lawyers for Khalid
Sheikh Mohammed, one of five men accused of involvement in attacks on New York
in September 2001, demanded more and better tests funded by the government to
ascertain the extent of the brain damage he suffered while held in secret CIA
prisons. Proof of brain damage could spare him from facing the death penalty.
In a March memo, his lawyers wrote “that MRI scans conducted at Guantánamo on Jan. 31
were flawed, and missing 75 percent of the data their experts sought. But the
limited data shows "evidence of head injuries consistent with the physical
trauma suffered by Mr. Mohammed and documented in the SSCI Executive
Summary," the so-called torture report produced by the Senate intelligence
committee in 2014 that condemned the spy agency's Black Site program.”
Lawyers
for Sheikh Mohammed also sought to have death penalty case, if not the whole
case, dismissed on the ground that controversial remarks by Donald Trump in his
tweets had “unlawful influence”. Having tweeted,
concerning more recent attacks on New York, that he wanted the defendant to
receive the death penalty, lawyers contended this could prejudice the jury when
the 9/11 case goes to trial.
In the case of Abd Al Nashiri, facing the death penalty in a
separate case, which has been stalled since late 2017, when his civilian legal
team quit after discovering their confidential communications were being spied
upon, a federal court ordered “instructed the Justice Department to submit
top-secret information about suspected eavesdropping on attorney-client
meetings at Guantánamo”. The case concerns whether two of the lawyers are
allowed to quit the case. The case has been on hold since February after the
judge froze proceedings to seek guidance from a superior court over his powers
and those of the court.
However, the court then dropped the inquiry into spying on confidential
lawyer-client meetings using listening devices that the lawyers had found in
their meeting rooms. The two lawyers, who were also seeking to appeal and find out from
the court whether the military commission judge can force them to represent the
client even though they quit on ethical grounds, were told they can represent
themselves before the US Court of Military Commissions Review. They had
previously not been allowed to.
Following an executive order by
Donald Trump at the end of January to Defense Secretary James Mattis to define
the US’ policy on the transfer of new prisoners to Guantánamo Bay, the 90-day
deadline given expired in early May. The Pentagon announced that Mattis had
sent the White House his recommendations but so far no details have been
disclosed. The announcement was made shortly after Mattis told journalists
“right now I'm not working that issue”.
There are currently 40 prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay. On 2 May,
Saudi prisoner Ahmed Al Darbi, 43, was returned to Saudi Arabia to serve the
rest of his sentence imposed by a military commission at Guantánamo. He is the
first and only prisoner to be transferred by Donald Trump. Al Darbi was
arrested in Azerbaijan in June 2002 and rendered to US custody in Afghanistan
in late 2002. He was tortured physically, mentally and sexually into confessing
his involvement in terrorist activities. In 2014, he pleaded guilty as part of
a plea bargain whereby he would provide testimony against other prisoners
facing trial. He was sentenced to 13 years, which he will serve in Saudi
Arabia, at least offering him the opportunity to see his wife and children. He
is likely to be freed in 2027. He was originally due to be returned in
February.
Extraordinary rendition
On 10 May, the UK government issued an apology, which was read out in
the House of Commons, to Libyan rendition survivors Abdul Hakim Belhaj and his
wife Fatima Boudchar, who were kidnapped in southeast Asia in 2004 and
“rendered” to torture in Libya with the help of MI6. In an unusual statement,
Prime Minister Theresa May said the couple had suffered “appalling treatment”. They
will also receive a £500,000 pay out although they have not claimed
compensation. At the same time, the UK still claims not to have any liability
for what happened to the couple and further details of the UK’s actual
involvement have not been released.
Gina
Haspel has been appointed the new director of the CIA. Haspel had run a CIA
torture facility in Thailand in 2002 under the extraordinary rendition
programme. When questioned by senators about her role there and her views on torture,
she was evasive. Nonetheless she received enough support to take the top
position in the US spy agency.
On 31 May, the European Court of Human Rights found Lithuania and
Romania complicit in running secret CIA torture facilities. A complaint brought
by Guantánamo prisoner Abu Zubaydah against Lithuania found that between 2005
and 2006 the state had hosted a secret CIA torture prison, knew he was being
tortured there and then allowed him to be transferred to further torture
elsewhere. Abd Al Nashiri, currently facing the death penalty at Guantánamo
successfully sued Romania for holding him for 18 months at a CIA detention
facility called Detention Site Black it ran between 2003 and 2005. The court
found both states guilty of multiple rights’ abuses and ordered the states to
pay the respective victims €100,000 each.
LGC Activities:
The LGC held its third monthly Shut Guantánamo! demos outside the US
Embassy in Nine Elms in May. Here is a video of our action:
Please join us on 7 June at
12-2pm for our next monthly demonstration. The address is 33 Nine Elms Ln,
London SW11 7US, nearest underground: Vauxhall. More details available at: https://www.facebook.com/events/954230551413655/ All are welcome to join us.
