Guantánamo Bay
As part of an ongoing investigation in Poland into its collusion with the CIA’s extraordinary rendition torture programme, particularly in relation to Guantánamo prisoner Abu Zubaydah, who has already successfully prosecuted the country for its involvement in crimes against humanity, a hearing was held at the United States Supreme Court in a case brought by his lawyers to order two CIA contractors, considered the architects of the extraordinary rendition programme, to testify about the torture he faced at an illegal secret CIA prison in Poland.
During the hearing, three of the nine judges on the panel asked why he could not speak himself: ““Why not make the witness available? What is the government’s objection to the witness testifying on his own treatment and not requiring any addition from the government of any kind?” Justice Neil Gorsuch asked.” At the same time, “The US government is blocking the request, arguing that questioning [James] Mitchell and [John] Jessen would reveal “state secrets”. After legal battles in the lower courts, the case has made it to the Supreme Court.” The judges also questioned why Abu Zubaydah remained at Guantánamo after so many years without charge or trial.
Lawyers for Abu Zubaydah, who has been held at Guantánamo without charge or trial since 2006, after over three years of illegal secret detention and torture by the CIA at locations around the world, have also filed cases at the United Nations and may also do so in the UK to obtain further information and details about the torture he faced.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/6/us-top-court-hears-guantanamo-detainee-state-secrets-case
Following the hearing, the Biden administration said it would allow Abu Zubaydah to testify in a written declaration to Polish investigators about the treatment he received in CIA detention; however, his statement is likely to be redacted to protect US torturers. The US government claims that nonetheless, this “would not prevent him from describing his treatment while in CIA custody.”
Following this news, one of Abu Zubaydah’s lawyers David Klein, wrote to the Supreme Court asking it to wait until the Biden administration explains what it means about allowing Abu Zubaydah to make a written statement and how much of it will be disclosed to the Polish investigators before deciding on the case. In his letter, Klein stated: “the Government will allow Abu Zubaydah to submit a written declaration about his treatment at the hands of the CIA so long as the CIA authorizes it.”
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/guantanamo-lawyer-says-case-should-be-put-hold-supreme-court
The prisoner reviewer board has cleared two more prisoners for release. Yemeni Sanad Yislam al-Kazimi, 51, and Afghan Assadullah Haroon Gul, 40, were both cleared for release on 7 October by the review board. It has been recommended that al-Kazimi is sent to Oman, in view of the ongoing war in Yemen. Neither has been tried or charged while held at Guantánamo.
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20211014-us-approves-freeing-two-guantanamo-detainees
In Gul’s case, following a habeas corpus application to review his prisoner status and grounds for detention filed in 2016, two weeks later, a US judge granted his application and ruled that there is no legal basis for him to be held at Guantánamo; such a ruling has not been made in over a decade. The details and reasoning of the ruling remain classified.
In spite of this ruling, and two more prisoners being cleared for release, it does not mean that any prisoners will be released soon or that plans are underway to facilitate this.
Following their arraignment in late August, more than 15 years after arriving at Guantánamo, one of two Malaysian prisoners in a case also involving an Indonesian prisoner has filed a motion to have the arraignment, at which they were given details of the charges against them, annulled as “a Malay translator provided by the US government was incompetent and an Indonesian translator helping the prosecution was biased.” Malaysian “Mohammed Nazir Lep said the Indonesian translator had stated last year that “I don’t know why the government is wasting so much money on these terrorists; they should have been killed a long time ago”. A motion posted on the website of the US Military Commission’s office said the “real and apparent bias prevented her from functioning as a true, accurate and impartial voice of the court”.” At the hearing, the three men refused to enter a plea, “citing incompetence of the translators which resulted in inaccurate translations.” The matter also delayed the hearing. Nazir’s lead counsel Brian Bouffard said “the US government had not secured a competent Malay translator “despite the extraordinary amount of time the government has had to prepare for the prosecution of this case”. Lawyers are asking for the arraignment to held again, properly.
The UAE has repatriated the remaining 12 Yemeni former Guantánamo prisoners it accepted from the US between 2015 and 2017. A group of 6 others were repatriated to Yemen in July where they were quickly released and reunited with their families. The 12 men arrived in Yemen on 27 October and their families were asked to come to a military base to meet them after release. Although the UAE government has not commented, the Yemeni government has said that those released in July received some funds from the UAE and Yemeni governments. The UN and human rights organisations have condemned the forced repatriations by the UAE and have claimed that the men were told to return to Yemen or face indefinite detention in the UAE; they had been detained in some form since their “release” from Guantánamo by the US to the country.
During his sentencing hearing, for the first time, Guantánamo prisoner Majid Khan described some of the torture he suffered at the hands of the CIA. This torture was used to extract his confession and convict him in a secret plea bargain. Although he may be freed next year in spite of being given a 26-year sentence, almost a decade after he was convicted, those involved in his torture remain free, in spite of having committed crimes against humanity that were detailed in the 2014 US Senate report into the CIA’s torture programme. He said he was “left terrified and hallucinating”. “Khan spoke of being suspended naked from a ceiling beam for long periods, doused repeatedly with ice water to keep him awake for days. He described having his head held under water to the point of near drowning, only to have water poured into his nose and mouth when the interrogators let him up. He was beaten, given forced enemas, sexually assaulted and starved in overseas prisons whose locations were not disclosed. “I would beg them to stop and swear to them that I didn’t know anything,” said Khan, reading from a 39-page statement. “If I had intelligence to give I would have given it already but I didn’t have anything to give.””
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/29/going-die-guantanamo-prisoner-torture-testimony
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/29/in-first-guatanamo-detainee-details-cia-torture-in-court
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