Guantánamo Bay
Air Force Colonel Vance Spath, the judge in the Abd Al-Nashiri
case, who suspended hearings in the case indefinitely earlier this year and
convicted a US national for contempt of court (Marine Brigadier General John
Baker from Al-Nashiri’s defence) for the first time ever at Guantánamo is retiring
as of November 2018. He has served on the USS Cole case at Guantánamo, in which
Abd Al-Nashiri is facing the death penalty for his role in an attack on a naval
vessel in the Gulf of Aden in 2000, since 2014.
On 11 July, lawyers for 8 prisoners held indefinitely, as “forever
prisoners”, without ever being charged at Guantánamo brought a case before the federal
courts asking for a ruling to have them freed as the “forever
war" they were held under no longer exists. Some prisoners have been held for
almost 17 years by the US without knowing the grounds for their detention,
which is as long as sentences served by convicted criminals in serious cases.
The judge agreed that the men were trapped in a sort of “no-man’s land” and
when he asked the US Justice Department lawyer about the limits of Law of War
detention at Guantánamo, the lawyer replied, “we could hold them for 100 years if the conflict
lasts 100 years”, indicating that the US government plans to continue holding the
men indefinitely and possibly until they die, even though there has never been
a lawful basis for their detention. Lawyers for the men argued that the war on
terror “is not a traditional war that could end in al-Qaida's
"unconditional surrender."” The nature of the war in Afghanistan has
changed and the Trump administration has no plans to release anyone, including
the five prisoners who have been cleared for release. Lawyers argued that there
must be some limits in place governing the detention of these men and that if
the men ever had any actual connections to Al Qaeda, that would be a very
different organisation to the one existing currently.
Majid Khan, at a hearing ahead of
his 2019 sentencing (he was “convicted” in 2012 on the basis of torture
evidence), told the war court judge about problems between his lawyers and
prosecutors. He called the military commission process a “cluster covfefe”,
using Donald Trump’s neologism to describe the “stagnant”, slow-moving process.
As part of his plea deal, he agreed to act as a government witness, however as
no case has been brought to trial that requires his testimony, his sentencing
has been postponed twice. He also complained about the high turnover of court
staff and legal representatives.
As pre-trial hearings continued in the case of five men accused of
involvement in the September 2001 attacks on New York, it has emerged that the
Attorney General Jeff Sessions called Defence Secretary Jim Mattis in October
to complain about exploratory talks aimed at a plea deal in the case which
would have removed the death penalty from the case, according to defence
lawyers who want both men to be ordered to testify before the commission. In February,
Mattis then fired the overseer of military commissions, Harvey Rishikoff, who
had been secretly exploring the possibility of guilty pleas. Defence lawyers
are now seeking that meddling by the Trump administration in the plea
negotiations should either result in the case being dismissed entirely or at
least the case becoming non-capital.
During the hearing, defence lawyers also argued that
remarks made by political leaders all the way back to the Bush administration
have undermined the possibility of “finding an impartial jury of U.S.
military officers in the death-penalty case.”
This includes remarks made by new CIA director Gina Haspel during her Senate
confirmation hearings. They asked for charges to either be dismissed or the
death penalty being withdrawn “because of alleged unlawful influence”.
Pre-trial hearings in this case will now resume in September.
Saudi prisoner Mohammed al-Qahtani had a periodic review board hearing on 24 July, his "first full review since the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia compelled the Department of Defense (DoD) to conduct an independent medical examination of him." He has been diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia, deep depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). His lawyers stated that he cannot receive adequate medical treatment at Guantánamo, falling in breach of the standards applied there, and asked for him to be transferred to Saudi Arabia so he can be treated effectively there. They stressed that he does not pose a threat to the USA. Already suffering from mental health problems, he was tortured in US detention which has exacerbated his situation.
https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/blog/al-qahtani-requests-transfer-receive-adequate-medical-care
The new commander in charge of Guantánamo prison operations, Rear
Admiral John Ring, said that he has not received any orders to prepare for new
prisoners. He also said that there is no policy on how to handle future
prisoners. For example, it is currently up to the existing prisoners whether they wish
to participate in interviews. The New York Times has reported that around 1000
ISIS captives from around 50 countries are being held in Syria but there are no plans to move them to Guantánamo. He also stated
that “interrogations by a prison intelligence unit are primarily meant to
gather intelligence on what is going on in the cell blocks, rather than find
out something new from captives who got here between 2002 and 2008.” He also
stated that the plans to build a new $69 million prison with specialist medical
facilities for ageing prisoners would not proceed in the immediate future as insufficient
justification was provided for it and that the current facilities are capable
of meeting the existing demand.
Extraordinary rendition
Proving that it has learned nothing from the mistakes made in
cooperating with the US over the detention of British nationals and residents
at Guantánamo, the British government has recently come under fire after a “secret
and unilateral” change to its position on the death penalty concerning two
alleged ISIS members captured in Syria who were stripped of their British
nationality. The UK has said that it would not oppose the death penalty being
applied to them. The change was signalled in a letter sent by Home Secretary
Sajid Javid to the US with the knowledge of Prime Minister Theresa May. It has
also been criticised by Conservative Party members and is apparently not the
first time that the UK has not sought assurances in a death penalty case.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jul/23/uk-will-not-oppose-us-death-penalty-for-isis-beatles
Following legal action by the mother of one of the men to prevent
the UK sharing intelligence with the US on the case unless assurances are
provided that they will not face the death penalty, and pending the outcome of
her judicial review of this policy change, the government has currently
suspended cooperation (mutual legal assistance) in the case.
LGC Activities:
The LGC held its monthly Shut Guantánamo! demos outside the US Embassy
in Nine Elms on 5 July at 12-2pm for our next monthly demonstration. Our next
monthly demo for August is on Thursday 2 August at 12-2pm: https://www.facebook.com/events/631527333900535/
All are welcome to join us.
The London Guantánamo Campaign joined the Guantánamo Justice
Campaign and hundreds of thousands of other protesters at the Together Against
Trump demonstration in London on 13 July. While sending a message to the UK and
US governments to act to close Guantánamo, it was also an important opportunity
to remind the public and the media that Guantánamo Bay is indeed still open. Our protest was covered in the Daily Mirror and Independent newspapers.
