Guantánamo Bay
The US repatriated Saudi prisoner, Ghassan Al Sharbi, 48, after 21 years of detention at Guantánamo without charge or trial. He was cleared for release by the periodic review board in February 2022; the review board also said that he “had unspecified “physical and mental health issues”.” “Al Sharbi was initially targeted because he had studied at an aeronautical university in Arizona and had attended flight school with two of the al-Qaeda hijackers involved in the 2001 attacks. He becomes at least the fourth Guantanamo detainee released and sent to another country so far this year.” There are currently 31 prisoners still held at Guantánamo, 17 of whom are eligible for transfer. Part of the conditions of Al Sharbi’s release is that he will remain under continuing surveillance.
It has
been over a year since prosecutors began plea dealings with the five defendants
accused in the September 11 2001 case, which could see them avoid the death
penalty and trial in return for a guilty plea and life sentences. However,
little progress has been made in the negotiations and the judge in the case,
Colonel Matthew N. McCall, who has cancelled scheduled hearings since, has
expressed his frustration over the lack of response from the Biden
administration concerning its assessment of the proposals. “The judge wrote on March 8 that he was “disinclined to continue
canceling commission hearings solely because of a lack of a decision as to
these ‘policy principles.’” The case itself has made little overall progress since the charges
were brought in 2012. “Terms of the proposed deal are secret, and some talks
have continued since last March. Government employees with knowledge of the
discussions but who are not authorized to discuss them say Biden administration
lawyers are examining granular issues.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/28/us/politics/september-11-plea-deal-guantanamo.html
In January, seven UN human rights investigators protested to the US government about healthcare for Guantánamo prisoners, in particular Abd Al-Hadi Al-Iraqi, who has a degenerative spinal disease for which he has had multiple operations and is now disabled. As the US government did not reply, the UN Human Rights Council has released an 18-page report by the experts on the healthcare facilities for prisoners, focusing on Al-Iraqi. “The report cites descriptions of his alleged mistreatment, many of which have been contained in court filings and transcripts — notably one that occurred in September 2021, after Mr. Hadi told the medical staff of a weakening in his lower extremities. It says that, soon after he refused a nurse’s proposal to conduct a rectal exam, the senior doctor at the prison conducted a test, “directing guards to hold him upright by his shoulders and then directing them to release him to see whether he could stand.” He “collapsed immediately as he did not have the strength to hold his own body upright,” the report says.” The report was submitted before the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism Fionnuala Ni Aolain carried out a fast-finding mission to Guantánamo earlier this year and was not given access to Al-Iraqi. “Mr. Hadi is among the sickest of the 31 detainees at Guantánamo Bay, and the investigators relied on medical records and testimony in court proceedings that have been largely focused on his ability to be brought before the court since his health crisis began in 2017. He pleaded guilty to war crimes last year in an agreement that would allow him to be transferred after sentencing to another country better equipped to treat him, potentially in a long-term health care facility. So far, no country has agreed to receive him. The report said there were “systematic shortcomings in medical expertise, equipment, treatment and accommodations at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility and naval station,” which sends service members who have complex health conditions to the United States for treatment. Congress has forbidden the same for the prisoners.”
“When he arrived at the prison, he could walk unassisted. Mr. Hadi now relies on a wheelchair and a walker inside the prison, and a padded geriatric chair for support in court. Guards also keep a hospital bed inside the courtroom where he has slept when heavy painkillers caused him to nod off.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/26/us/politics/un-guantanamo-bay-health-care.html
Former British resident Jamal Kiyemba, who was released to Uganda from Guantánamo in 2006, has been charged with terrorism offences in Uganda. Although he has previously been arrested in the country, he has never faced trial.
