Guantánamo Bay
Former Canadian prisoner Omar Khadr, 32, brought a case before the
Alberta youth court on 26 February 2019, seeking to have his bail conditions,
which impose restrictions on his everyday life, lifted. Khadr was convicted at
Guantánamo in 2010 in a secret plea deal on the charge of allegedly murdering a
US serviceman when he was 15 in Afghanistan. Returned to Canada in 2012 to
serve the rest of his sentence there, he was released from a maximum security
prison by a youth court in 2015 on the basis of a number of bail restrictions,
many of which have been relaxed over the past few years but which still require
him to seek permission to travel in Canada and deprive him of a passport, among
other things. Effectively, had he remained in jail, Khadr’s sentence would have
expired over 5 months ago. Although Canada apologised to Khadr and reached an
out-of-court settlement with him over its failure to protect his human rights,
he remains subject, in Canada, to a ruling made by the highly controversial
Guantánamo military tribunal, with evidence obtained from torture used to try
him. Khadr asked the court to order his release and declare his sentence to
have expired by having the judge place him under conditional supervision for
one day and then declare his sentence served. The judge hearing the case said
she will rule on the case in March. According to his lawyer, Nate Whitling: “The
bail order does interrupt the ticking of the clock but practically speaking,
the guy has served his sentence now.” and, in the meantime, his appeal in the
US, pending which he was released on bail, has not advanced “even an inch”.
Extraordinary Rendition:
A second case has been brought against Lithuania at the European
Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg by a Guantánamo prisoner, Saudi Mustafa
Al-Hawsawi, who is currently facing trial with four other men suspected of
involvement in the September 2001 attacks in New York. The Lithuanian
government has decided to challenge the case, and consistently denies the
existence of any CIA torture prisons in its territory. Concerning Al-Hawsawi,
it claims: “We have no tangible or reasonable evidence whatsoever that the
person could have been in Lithuania”, and that “the suspected building in
Antaviliai, in the outskirts of Vilnius, had been "an intelligence support
center" and that the suspected planes had transported communication
equipment rather than people to Lithuania”, even though Lithuania previously
lost a case at the court whereby it was fined for having colluded in CIA
torture through running a torture facility. It is currently appealing that
judgment made last year.
Lawyers and NGOs acting for Al-Hawsawi previously urged the
Lithuanian government to include him in its investigation into secret CIA
torture prisons in the country, ongoing since 2015. However, refusal by the
district court in Lithuania in 2016 to grant him the victim status that would
allow his inclusion in the investigation led lawyers to take the case to the
Strasbourg Court.
According to the NGO Redress: “Mr.
al-Hawsawi was captured in Pakistan in 2003 and was held in secret detention in
the CIA’s rendition, detention, and interrogation programme until September
2006.
During this time he was severely
tortured and now suffers from a number of serious medical conditions, including
rectal prolapse, anal fissures, and Hepatitis C, a condition he did not have
previously.
The United States Senate Torture
Report – the most comprehensive examination of the CIA’s Torture programme –
indicates that while Mr. al-Hawsawi was held in Lithuania he required emergency
medical care, which was delayed because he was denied access to a local
hospital.
Throughout his three and a half
years’ secret detention– including the time he was detained in Lithuania – Mr.
al-Hawsawi was not allowed access to a lawyer or to independent monitors (such
as the International Committee of the Red Cross).
He was tortured and detained
outside the protection of the law in conditions that amounted to enforced
disappearance.”
Lawyers for fellow defendant in the
September 2001 case, Ammar Al-Baluchi, have claimed that the makers of the film
Zero Dark Thirty were given detailed information about his torture in a
secret CIA prison, information that has been denied to his lawyers. According
to his lawyers, “they were stunned to see the portrayal of his torture,
including beatings, suspension from manacles and waterboarding, in the
Oscar-winning 2012 film. The lawyers discovered that in the CIA’s year-long
cooperation with the film-makers, the agency shared details of Baluchi’s
torture at a secret prison, or black site, which they had been told were too
secret to be divulged.”
This disclosure was made as part of a new film by The Guardian on
the Guantánamo military tribunals: https://www.theguardian.com/law/video/2019/feb/22/the-trial-inside-guantanamo-with-911-suspect-ammar-al-baluchi-video
On 27 February, lawyers for Al-Baluchi brought a case before the
federal courts to have the death penalty aspect of the case against him at
Guantanamo removed, on the basis of the torture he has suffered and that almost
seven years after the charges were brought against him (and four others), no
trial date has been set. If successful, the case could see his trial before the
military commission at a later stage invalidated.
LGC Activities:
The
February Shut Guantánamo! demo took place on 7 February. The March
demonstration will be at 12-2pm on Thursday 7 March outside the US Embassy, 33
Nine Elms Lane, SW11 7US. Further details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/287164098647551/
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