NEWS:
British residents:
The last British resident in Guantánamo Bay, Shaker Aamer, marked his 12th
year at Guantánamo Bay, without charge or trial, on 14th February.
The Save Shaker Aamer Campaign and supporters held a lively, noisy
protest opposite the MI6 intelligence services building in Vauxhall, London,
demanding they provide information that could help Shaker Aamer be released.
Around 50 people joined the protest and there were talks and a letter was
delivered to MI6. Having closed the door when the protesters came knocking, the
letter was sent over the gate and was promptly thrown back. Following chants of
“take the letter” by activists, the letter was finally accepted.
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| Outside MI6 building at Shaker Aamer protest |
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Guantánamo Bay:
One of the two remaining Kuwaiti prisoners held
at Guantánamo, Fawzi Al-Odah, 36, has launched a lawsuit in the US arguing that
he should be released once the US leaves Afghanistan, claiming he is a prisoner
of war and not an “enemy combatant” and thus under international law, he should
be returned home once the conflict is over. Al-Odah’s family maintains he was
doing charitable work in Afghanistan with refugees when he was captured by the
US military there in 2001. His father, Khalid Al-Odah, a Kuwaiti air force
colonel, worked with the US forces in the 1991 Gulf War between Kuwait and Iraq.
Under the Geneva Conventions, he claims that his son must be released by the
end of 2014. Al-Odah and another Kuwaiti national, Fayiz Al-Kandari remain at
Guantánamo; 10 others were repatriated years ago. They both fall under the
category of the 40+ "indefinite detention" prisoners who cannot be tried but whom
the US deems a sufficient threat – without any indication of that threat – to not
release. Having restarted periodic reviews of the status of such prisoners
recently, one such prisoner, from Yemen, has already been cleared for release.
On 7 February, former Guantánamo prisoner Omar
Khadr, convicted at a US military tribunal and currently serving the rest of
his sentence in Canada, was transferred to the medium-security Bowden
Institution in Alberta. He had previously been held at maximum-security
facilities since his return to the country in September 2012. His lawyers are
pleased that he was reclassified as a medium-risk prisoner in December 2013; at
Guantánamo, he had been deemed to pose a minimum risk. The transfer should mean
that Khadr will now have access to much-needed rehabilitation and counselling
facilities that he has not previously had access to.
On 11 February, a federal appeals court ruled,
in a case brought by Shaker Aamer, Ahmed Belbacha and another current prisoner,
that it was not unlawful for the military authorities to force feed them by
nasal tube against their will while on hunger strike. The prisoners can however
appeal the force feeding at a lower court again. The practice is widespread at
prisons throughout the US when prisoners go on hunger strike, with the
exception of a few states, and is illegal everywhere else.
The same lawsuit also allowed prisoners to challenge
the conditions of their detention and may see new lawsuits brought by the
prisoners against the Obama administration.
Abd al Hadi Al-Iraqi, who is facing a trial by military tribunal at
Guantánamo Bay having been charged with various offences, has had the charge of
“conspiracy” added against him. Last year, another prisoner won his appeal against
conviction on the basis that “conspiracy” is not recognised under the
international laws of war. That case is currently being appealed by the Obama administration;
however this particular case could set “up a test of whether Congress has the
power to make conspiracy a prosecutable offense in a war-crimes tribunal
despite its not being recognized as an international war crime.” The difference
in this case is that “conspiracy” was only added as such as an offence by the 2006
Military Commissions Act in the US, whereas Al-Iraqi, who arrived as one of the
last prisoners at Guantánamo in 2007, is charged with acts also relating to
2006 and 2007. Overall, the issue could lead to controversy between the US
government and courts.
Abd al-Nashiri’s pre-trial hearing recommenced
on 17 February. The case was then adjourned for two days when Al-Nashiri announced
to the court he wanted to sack his death penalty lawyer Richard Kammen as he
could not speak Arabic and tell him what happened during the proceedings. However,
when the court resumed on Wednesday 19 February, Al-Nashiri apologised for the
delay and said that he was keeping his legal team. His actual trial is
scheduled to start in September; however his lawyers are trying to have the
charges against him dropped due to unlawful influence by former president Bush
when he said in 2002 that Al-Nashiri had orchestrated the attacks. At that
time, he had “disappeared” as a ghost prisoner into the CIA’s global network of
illegal prisons.
On 20 February, Saudi prisoner, Ahmed Al-Darbi, 39, pleaded guilty in a plea bargain to charges of involvement
in an attack on an oil tanker off the coast of Yemen in 2002 killing one
crewmember and injuring 12. US prosecutors claim he helped plan the attacks but
was not directly involved as he was already in US custody at the time. He pleaded
guilty to 5 charges. Al-Darbi was arrested in Azerbaijan in 2002, rendered to
Bagram in Afghanistan where he was tortured, including having been waterboarded
and was taken to Guantánamo Bay in August 2002. He is likely to face a sentence
of 13-15 years and is likely to be allowed to serve part of his sentence in
Saudi Arabia. Sentencing has been deferred until 2017 to allow time for him to
provide evidence against Abd Al-Nashiri, who faces charges in the same case. As
part of the deal, “al-Darbi has agreed to not sue the US over his capture and
the conditions of his confinement.” As in many other cases where prisoners have
pleaded guilty under a plea bargain, this is his only way out of Guantánamo
Bay, even if release, to possible further incarceration, is a few years away.
On 21 February, a federal court heard evidence
in a case brought by 5 former Guantánamo prisoners, suing the US government
after it continued to abuse them after they were no longer deemed to be “enemy
combatants” and they were cleared for release. According to the Center for
Constitution Rights (CCR), bringing the case on the men’s behalf: “One Uzbek plaintiff, Zakirjan Hasam, was subject to all of the worst
abuses inflicted on Guantánamo detainees after he was found by a
military (CSRT) panel to not be an “enemy combatant”: he was placed in solitary
confinement (against a military psychologist’s advice), subjected to sleep
deprivation, prevented from praying, forcibly shaved, and medicated against his
will. When he was finally sent to Albania as a refugee, 23 months after the
military panel’s ruling, he was sent shackled and bound to his seat. He
continues to live in poverty there.”
Another prisoner who was healthy and able to walk when he arrived at Guantánamo
is now a paraplegic. The US quickly deemed these men to be innocent but
continued to abuse them.
Aloysia Brooks, wife
of Australian former Guantánamo prisoner David Hicks, who is currently appealing
his military tribunal, has launched legal proceedings in the US to force the US
government to explain why it has withheld documents related to Hicks’ treatment
and torture during his 5 years at Guantánamo. Having unsuccessfully tried to
obtain information from the Australian government and the US in the past, Ms
Brooks is seeking to have these documents made public through a freedom of
information request. She stated: “I am concerned about the continuing level of
government secrecy surrounding issues relating to torture and political interference
in War on Terror cases.”
Extraordinary Rendition
Following a court ruling last month in Lithuania, prosecutors have
started an investigation into claims that a Saudi prisoner at Guantánamo Bay,
Mustafa Al-Hawsawi, currently facing a military tribunal was held and tortured
at an illegal CIA facility in the country. Prosecutors had previously refused
to investigate last year. He is reported to have been held there between 2004
and 2006. The ruling could pave the way to investigations in other European states:
http://rt.com/news/cia-rendition-prisons-terrorism-976/
LGC Activities:
The February monthly
demonstration marked both the 7th year of our regular “Shut Guantánamo!”
demonstrations outside the US Embassy in London (first one in February 2007!),
and coincided with the first anniversary of the ongoing hunger strike at Guantánamo
Bay, still involving over 35 prisoners. The LGC held the first solidarity action
worldwide in support of the hunger strike in March last and this was one of two
solidarity events to mark this anniversary, the other being in Chicago.
Over 25 people braved
a transport strike and poor, cold weather conditions to join us in the dark
outside the US Embassy for a reading of poems by past and present prisoners and
a candlelight vigil.
David Harrold from the LGC joined a panel
discussion at the Oxford human rights film festival on Monday 24 February
following a screening of the Irish hunger strike film Hunger.
For background on who Omar Khadr is and why we
are bringing Dennis Edney QC to the UK, please see:
