Tuesday, June 30, 2020

LGC Newsletter – June 2020




Guantánamo Bay
On 4 June, a military judge ruled that Guantánamo military judges can reduce the prison sentence to be given to Majid Khan, who pleaded guilty in 2012 “to delivering $50,000 of Qaeda money that helped finance the 2003 bombing of a Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, that killed 11 people, and plotting other, unrealized terrorist attacks.” His sentencing has been delayed since then as in his plea bargain he agreed to act as witness against prisoners to get a more lenient sentence. Under his “plea agreement, his sentence is to end in 2031. But the judge could shorten that if he decides Mr. Khan should get credit for having been tortured.” The evidence against Majid Khan, 40, was obtained through severe torture he was subject to during three years of CIA detention at various sites around the world, following his kidnapping in 2003 in Pakistan: “During his time in the C.I.A. black sites, Mr. Khan says, he was hung from his wrists and kept naked and hooded to the point of wild hallucinations. He was held in darkness for a year, isolated in a cell with bugs that bit him until he bled. A Senate investigation disclosed that in his second year of C.I.A. detention, the agency “infused” a purée of pasta, sauce, nuts, raisins and hummus into his rectum because he went on a hunger strike.”
No date has been set for sentencing, even though Majid Khan has given his witness statements. This ruling may have an effect on other cases where defendants have been tortured at CIA black sites, such as the five men awaiting trial for their alleged involvement in attacks in New York City in September 2001.
“The chief defense counsel, Brig. Gen. John G. Baker of the Marines, cast it as a watershed decision. “It is about time that we see a means to hold the government accountable for the reprehensible torture of Mr. Khan and other commissions defendants in a court a law.” he said. “While it may seem obvious that being tortured by government actors should have some effect on a defendant’s ultimate sentence, the prosecution has disagreed every step of the way.””
Uzair Paracha, who was convicted in a federal court in relation to this case in 2005, for supporting terrorism, was exonerated and released earlier in 2020.

Extraordinary rendition:
A judicial review into the decision by former Prime Minister Theresa May’s government not to hold a judge-led inquiry “into the involvement of British intelligence in torture and rendition following 9/11” brought by two MPs and an NGO found that 15 more potential cases of “torture or rendition involving British intelligence at the height of the “war on terror” were examined last year in a secret Whitehall review”. The files emerged in “a witness statement made by an MI6 officer known only as AA as part of disclosure proceedings” and “might require further investigation.” The hearing held on 9 June was to decide whether the judicial review should be heard in secret: “The government argues that because the charity and the two MPs are not victims, there is no need for them to hear the detail of the case in open court” but no judgment has yet been made on this matter, with the applicants seeking open justice.

On 11 June, Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing sanctions and visa restrictions on International Criminal Court (ICC) officials carrying out an investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan, including those committed by the USA (CIA torture and rendition and others), after the ICC appeals chamber authorised the investigation in March. The order extends to their family members too. In announcing the order, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the ICC a “kangaroo court”, with Pompeo making it very clear that impunity for human rights violations and war crimes by its agents is US state policy. The ICC has condemned the sanctions, calling them "unacceptable attempt to interfere with the rule of law".

LGC Activities:
With the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the London Guantánamo Campaign’s monthly Shut Guantánamo! demonstration will be held virtually at 12-2pm on Thursday 2 July. To take part, please email a photo/video of your banner to us at london.gtmo@gmail.com before 12pm on 2 July or share your picture/video to our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/London-Guantánamo-Campaign-114010671973111/ or via Twitter (or just a message – some possible messages available through the link below) @shutguantanamo between 12 and 2pm on Thursday 2 July. More details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/949045892185085/
   

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