Guantánamo Bay
The new judge in the Abd Al Nashiri capital case, in which he is accused
of masterminding an attack on a US naval vessel in the Gulf of Aden in 2000, is
leaving the case to become an immigration judge. As the case is currently
awaiting rulings from other higher courts on various issues, Air Force Col.
Shelley Schools has not yet presided the case and may never do so. She is
reported to have applied to become an immigration judge in April 2018, 4 months
before she was assigned to Al Nashiri’s case, and to have accepted the post
which will start in the summer.
The previous judge, Air Force Col.
Vance Spath, left for retirement and has since become an immigration judge too.
On 22 January, District of Columbia Court of Appeals heard arguments from Al
Nashiri’s lawyer on whether he should have disclosed that he had been seeking
this job for almost three years. They argued that all rulings he made during
that period should be nullified, due to “an undisclosed conflict of interest,
noting that for years, he was angling for an appointment with the Justice
Department while advancing Nashiri’s case on terms favorable to the prosecution
team.” Michel Paradis, a lawyer representing Al Nashiri said “that Spath had
used one of his rulings favorable to the Justice Department in Nashiri’s case
as a writing sample for his application.” https://theintercept.com/2019/01/23/guantanamo-military-commision-abd-rahim-nashiri/
A new judge in the case will the
fourth to handle the pre-trial proceedings in this case which are currently
halted.
Pre-trial hearings have continued in other cases at Guantánamo
nonetheless. On Monday 7 January, pre-trial hearings started in the case of Abd
al Hadi Al-Iraqi. The main open discussion related to his health and ability to
attend hearings. Since September 2017, he has had 5 operations to his spine and
various other hearings have been halted due to the pain he finds himself in. A
neurosurgeon was called to the court to testify on his ability to travel to the
courtroom. The hearings on Wednesday and Thursday were held in closed court.
By the end of the week it was decided that instead of adjourning or
throwing out the case before the military tribunal, which is based on torture
and other inadmissible evidence, and is a case in which the defendant claims
they do not even have his correct name, the prosecutor announced that a
hospital bed could be brought into the courtroom compound so that Al-Iraqi can
watch proceedings from the bed in an adjacent room with a video feed and phone
line to the court. The special cell containing this will arrive at Guantánamo
in March. It will be the first time that a prisoner spends the night in the
court compound.
A trial
date has been set in his case, for 19 February 2020. The date was set after the
lead prosecutor said that by March 2019 the facilities for Al-Iraqi to stay at
the courthouse during hearings would be ready. The next pre-trial hearings in his
case are set for 4-8 March.
Pre-trial
hearings resumed briefly in the case of five men accused of involvement in the September
2001 attacks in New York. The hearing started off disruptively on Monday 28 January
with the defendants claiming they could answer the judge’s questions as they
questioned his authority to preside the case. Their lawyers, on the other hand,
asked for the hearing to be delayed so that the government could provide “more
information about the FBI’s recent interrogation of a former paralegal from one
of the defense teams. Lawyers said they needed the details to determine if they
were operating under a conflict of interest and assailed what they said was
another attempt by the government to disrupt their work through criminal
investigations, intrusions and harassment.” Given previous harassment and
surveillance by the government of defence lawyers in the case going back
several years, one of the lawyers, James Harrington, explained that “There’s a
real basis for our paranoia”. Stating that he had received information that
none of the lawyers were being investigated, Judge Marine Col. Keith Parrella
decided to continue.
More on the questioning of the
paralegal: https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/article225208845.html
However,
on Tuesday, the hearing ended suddenly when the judge had a health emergency:
he had a detached retina and had to be flown to Miami for emergency surgery.
There was a delay in his departure concerning which his wife claimed on social
media that military insurance refused to transport him and the military claimed
there was no aircraft available. The next hearings are due to be held in late
March.
LGC Activities:
The LGC held its first monthly Shut Guantánamo! demos outside the US
Embassy in Nine Elms on Thursday 3 January. The February demonstration will be
at 12-2pm on Thursday 7 February outside the US Embassy, 33 Nine Elms Lane,
SW11 7US. Further details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/376841939785822/
On Friday 11 January, the 17th anniversary of Guantánamo
Bay opening, activists from the London Guantánamo joined an event organised by
the Guantánamo Justice Campaign in Trafalgar Square to mark the anniversary.
The very visual event attracted passers-by, many of whom stopped to talk and
express their solidarity. Many were not aware that it is still open and some
were under the impression that the prisoners are convicted terrorists, whereas
with two exceptions, none of the prisoners have been convicted and over half
face no charges or trial after 17 years.
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