LGC Newsletter – September 2022

 Guantánamo Bay

Libyan prisoner, Ismail Ali Faraj Ali Bakush, 54, has been cleared for release by the periodic review board. He has been held at Guantánamo without charge or trial for over 20 years. Of the 36 remaining prisoners, 22 have been cleared for release. Bakush cannot be released to Libya given the security situation in the country and thus a “safe” third country will need to be found to host him. At the end of August, his compatriot Abu Faraj al-Libi, a former CIA secret prison detainee, was not cleared and remain one of three “forever” prisoners. Clearance for transfer does not guarantee release, with some prisoners cleared by the Obama administration still held at Guantánamo.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/23/us/politics/libyan-guantanamo-transfer.html

 

The Biden administration has appointed a senior diplomat, Tina Kaidanow, to oversee the transfer of prisoners who have been cleared for release.

“The administration has also signalled that it will not interfere with plea negotiations that could resolve the long-stalled prosecution of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-defendants.”

In addition, “[…] the University of Pennsylvania released a near 200-page report that provided a road map to closing the facility. The report was drafted by national security experts, including former Guantanamo military prosecutors and defence lawyers, and recommends abolishing the military commissions and resolving the remaining trials through plea bargains.”

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/guantanamo-biden-appoints-senior-diplomat-oversee-detainee-transfers-report-says

LGC Newsletter – August 2022

 Guantánamo Bay

On 8 August, the US Department of Justice issued a motion opposing Majid Khan’s habeas petition filed in June at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, having not been released after he completed his sentence at Guantánamo Bay on 1 March. In response to Khan’s claims that “his detention is “arbitrary, indefinite and perpetual, and does not serve its ostensible purpose of preventing his return to the battlefield.””, the DoJ responded that “in addition to its “diligent” pursuit of diplomatic efforts to resettle Khan and its continued “prioritizing” of this effort, Khan’s petition also raised questions for which there currently exists no precedent and that there are constitutional questions that the court should refrain from reaching at this time”". Majid Khan is seeking that “the Biden administration approve Khan’s transfer anywhere outside of Pakistan, where Khan faces risk of persecution.” The US claims that it is urgently seeking a third state to host Majid Khan.

https://www.lawfareblog.com/us-responds-guantanamo-detainees-request-habeas-relief

 

The periodic review board has again refused to clear former CIA secret prison prisoner Abu Faraj al-Libi for release. He has never been charged or tried at Guantánamo.

LGC Newsletter – July 2022

 Guantánamo Bay

Yemeni prisoner Khalid Ahmed Qasim, who has been held without charge or trial at Guantánamo for over 20 years, has been cleared for release by the periodic review board. He is one of 21 of the remaining 36 prisoners who have been cleared but will remain at Guantánamo for now as the US looks for safe third countries to host them. Only four of the remaining prisoners are “forever” prisoners, whose status has not been clarified and are being held indefinitely; three of them were previously tortured at CIA secret facilities around the world before arriving at Guantánamo.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/20/politics/guantanamo-detainee-cleared-for-release/index.html

 

A three-week pre-trial hearing commenced in the case of Abd Al Nashiri, accused of involvement in attacking a US navy vessel in the Gulf of Aden in 2000. During the hearing, it was revealed that he had told FBI agents that he had been waterboarded by the CIA, as testified by an interpreter; however, this information is not included in the official account of his interrogations prosecutors want to use as evidence of his confession in his death-penalty trial. The interpreter’s testimony also revealed that “The C.I.A. had a secret role at Guantánamo in the detention and interrogations of the men by F.B.I. and Navy law enforcement agents, including collecting the notes from interrogations” and “The C.I.A. required that the interrogators write their accounts of what they learned on agency computers, which were classified”. During the pre-trial hearing, lawyers also raised arguments related to his mental health situation. As a member of the courtroom staff tested positive for Covid-19, the hearing was closed before the end of the first week until at least the middle of the first week of August.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/28/us/politics/gitmo-prisoner-torture-cia.html

https://www.lawdragon.com/news-features/2022-07-29-critical-suppression-hearing-resumes-in-guantanamo-uss-cole-bombing-case