Guantánamo Bay
Dennis Edney KC, Scottish-Canadian lawyer of former Guantánamo child prisoner Omar Khadr has died aged 77. He was Khadr’s lawyer for over a decade and played a huge role in getting his client released from Guantánamo Bay when the Canadian government dragged its feet over his repatriation after a military commission plea bargain was reached, and then in helping to secure his release from prison in Canada and improving prison conditions when Khadr was held in solitary confinement and was subject to abuse from other prisoners. After his release from Canadian jail in 2015 on bail, Edney and his wife Patricia welcomed Omar Khadr into their home where he stayed for several years as he rehabilitated back into society. Lawyer Nate Whitling, who worked with Edney on Khadr’s case said, “Dennis was a great lawyer and friend. In all my years in the legal profession, I've never met a lawyer more dedicated to his clients”. A criminal lawyer, he also worked on numerous pro bono cases. In 2014, the LGC hosted a speaking tour by Dennis Edney in the UK to raise awareness about Omar Khadr’s case.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/lawyer-dennis-edney-dead-at-77-1.7072899
In a 2-week hearing in January, two Malaysian prisoners held at Guantánamo since 2006, after being transferred there following several years of illegal detention and torture in secret CIA facilities around the world, entered a plea bargain and pleaded guilty to conspiracy in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed over 200 people. The two men, Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep, 47, and Mohammed Farik Bin Amin, 48, who will now not have to reveal “evidence” through torture-tainted confessions obtained from them, will instead give evidence against the alleged mastermind of the bombings, fellow torture victim, the Indonesian prisoner known as Hambali. They pleaded guilty to five of the nine charges brought against them; the other charges were dropped as part of the deal. Lawyers for Hambali are seeking to have torture-tainted evidence dropped in his separate case.
As part of the hearing, the men addressed the court which was attended by family members of the victims, who read out some of their own messages, and some of their own family members. The advised sentence of 23 years was accepted by the military jury and was later reduced to 5 years in view of the time already spent at Guantánamo (illegal CIA detention not included) of 17 years and the secret deal. The men are expected to be released to Malaysia after that but are not expected to be freed from detention, something that has not happened to any victim of the CIA’s extraordinary rendition torture programme.
Extraordinary Rendition
Lithuania has been found guilty a second time by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg of complicity in the CIA’s extraordinary rendition programme, this time in relation to Saudi prisoner Mustafa Al-Hawsawi, whose case has recently been severed from that of the other defendants in the 9/11 case due to the physical and mental impact his torture and detention have had on him. The court held that in his secret detention and torture in the CIA-run facility in Lithuania in 2005-2006 “that there had been violations of the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment or investigation because of Lithuania’s failure to effectively investigate Hawsawi’s allegations “and because of its complicity in the CIA secret detainee programme”.” The court also “held that there were violations to articles relating to the rights to a fair trial and life, as well as abolition of the death penalty, […] because Lithuania assisted Hawsawi’s “transfer from its territory in spite of a real risk that he could face a flagrant denial of justice and the death penalty.”” Lithuania was ordered to pay Al-Hawsawi €100,000 in compensation.
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