LGC Newsletter – June 2021

Guantánamo Bay

A military judge in the case of Abd al-Rahim Al-Nashiri, facing the death penalty at Guantánamo in relation to his alleged connection to the bombing of the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen in 2000, has allowed an application by the prosecution to admit information obtained through torture to be used as evidence in his case. Col. Lanny J. Acosta Jr. ruled in May to allow prosecutors to use torture evidence “in a limited capacity at pre-trial hearings”. Evidence obtained through the use of torture is generally illegal and inadmissible in almost all countries around the world. Lawyers for Al-Nashiri are now appealing to the United States Court of Military Commission Review board to reverse this ruling, stating “'No court has ever sanctioned the use of torture in this way”. Such a decision and request by the prosecution and its attempts to withhold evidence from Al-Nashiri’s defence team show desperation in its efforts to prosecute him. Al-Nashiri has successfully prosecuted European states for their role in his torture and rendition. The next pre-trial hearings in his case are scheduled for September.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9650835/Military-judge-allows-information-obtained-TORTURE-used-case-terror-suspect.html

https://www.justsecurity.org/76985/how-the-biden-administration-should-take-torture-derived-evidence-off-the-table/

 

Two Yemeni prisoners held at Guantánamo since 2004 have been cleared for release by the Periodic Review Board, bringing the number of prisoners held at Guantánamo who can be transferred to 11 out of 40 prisoners. The two men are Abd al-Salam al-Hilah and Sharqawi Abdu Ali al-Hajj.

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/two-yemeni-men-held-guantanamo-approved-transfer-2021-06-18/

Three Guantánamo prisoners – Indonesian Hambali and Malaysians Mohammed Nazir bin Lep and Mohammed Farik bin Amin – who all arrived at Guantánamo in 2006 following years of detention in secret CIA torture facilities around the world will be arraigned on 30 August on charges of involvement in the Bali bombing of 2002 and a bombing in Jakarta in 2003, formally starting proceedings in the case which was reportedly postponed due to coronavirus. All are charged with “conspiracy, murder, attempted murder, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, terrorism, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, and destruction of property” and the two Malaysians face an additional charge of “accessory after the fact”. The case does not carry the death penalty. In spite of US detention for 18 years and at Guantánamo for 15 years, this will be the first time they are formally charged. The evidence obtained in their cases was obtained through torture in secret CIA torture facilities.

https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/indonesian/arraignment-scheduled-06282021161907.html

 

Extraordinary Rendition

The US Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by US military contractor CACI International Inc. against a 2019 judgment that ruled that the company was not immune from prosecution as a government contractor. This means that a 2008 case brought by three Iraqi men against the company for directing their torture at Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq is closer to going ahead: “The three plaintiffs - Suhail Al Shimari, Salah Al-Ejaili and As'ad Al-Zuba'e - are Iraqi civilians who said they were detained at Abu Ghraib and eventually released without charge. CACI has called the lawsuit baseless”. The case is brought under the Alien Tort Statute of 1789.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-supreme-court-rebuffs-defense-contractors-abu-ghraib-torture-appeal-2021-06-28/

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/28/us-supreme-court-rejects-contractors-abu-ghraib-torture-appeal

 

LGC Activities

The LGC joined the G7 protest outside Downing Street on 12 June and the People’s Assembly protest on 26 June where we handed out leaflets and raised awareness about the continuing situation at Guantánamo Bay, where 40 prisoners remain almost 20 years on.

The LGC is also resuming its physical presence outside the US Embassy London with our regular Shut Guantánamo! protests (which we have held since 2007) on Thursday 1^st July at 12-2pm outside the US Embassy in Nine Elms (Nine Elms Lane, SW11 7US, nearest underground: Vauxhall). We are usually found away from the main road in the pedestrianised area outside the embassy and near the housing development opposite it; please walk around the embassy to find us. We can provide orange jumpsuits and banners but you are welcome to bring your own. For more details: https://www.facebook.com/events/379910286772908

 

LGC Newsletter – May 2021

 Guantánamo Bay

Pakistani prisoner, Majid Khan, who remains at Guantánamo years after being convicted under a secret plea deal based on torture evidence, continues to await his final sentence. Ahead of his latest scheduled sentencing hearing, his defence team and the military commission convening authority have reached an agreement to prevent CIA officers from testifying about his torture during the proceeding, which his defence sought to help mitigate his sentence. In return for protecting and hiding the CIA’s crimes against humanity, “The jury will be instructed to impose a sentence of 25 to 40 years; but under the new agreement the judge will reduce it to 11 to 14 years (including time served). The military judge, Army Colonel Douglas K. Watkins, already lopped off an additional year because of prosecutorial misconduct. The result is that Mr. Khan could be released as early as next year, depending on the extent of his cooperation.” Although this is a positive outcome for Khan, the agreement means that a landmark court decision allowing evidence of his torture to be used in his defence now has to be set aside: “Apparently, the government thinks it is of the utmost importance not just to bury evidence of CIA torture, but to ensure a decision that could have allowed other detainees to expose their abuse is erased from the books.”

At the same time, in the case of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the military judge in his case allowed prosecutors “to introduce a document containing statements that the defense said were “obtained by torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment” (CIDT). Judge Acosta’s decision found that the law barring such statements applies only to evidence at trial, not to their use in interlocutory matters.”

More worryingly over the past month, the trial chamber at the International Criminal Court in The Hague has admitted statements as evidence the accused made while being allegedly subject to torture.

https://www.justsecurity.org/76640/torture-evidence-and-the-guantanamo-military-commissions/

 

Three more prisoners have been cleared for release by the periodic review board, bringing the total number of prisoners cleared to 9, almost a quarter of the total prisoner population. One man has been cleared for over a decade. The latest prisoners to be cleared for release are the oldest prisoner, Pakistani Saifullah Paracha, Yemeni Uthman Abd Rahim Uthman and Pakistani Abdul Rabbani. Being cleared for release is not the same as being released, and following two decades of arbitrary detention for each of these men, the US must ensure that they are released under conditions where their safety and human rights are ensured and they are not subject to further US surveillance or further persecution.

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-05-18/us-approves-release-oldest-guantanamo-bay-prisoner