LGC Newsletter – November 2015

British residents:

Former British resident Ahmed Belbacha, who returned to his native Algeria in March 2013, was given a three-year suspended sentence and fined 500,000 Algerian dinars on the charge of membership of a foreign terrorist organisation in Algeria. In 2009, while still held at Guantánamo, he was sentenced to 20 years in absentia on the same charges. He was arrested upon return to the country but a judge ordered his release and demanded proof of the charges for his case to be reheard.

NEWS:

Guantánamo Bay:

On 13 November, 5 Yemeni prisoners were released to Al-Ain in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). There are currently 107 prisoners at Guantánamo. The five men are Ali Ahmad Mohammed Al Razihi, Khalid Abd Al Jabbar Mohammed Uthman Al Qadasi, Adil Said Al Hajj Ubayd Al Busays, Sulayman Awad Bin Uqayl Al Nahdi and Fahmi Salem Said Al Asani, who are all considered low-level prisoners and have long been cleared for release. As with all prisoners released from Guantánamo Bay, the men are subject to restrictions imposed by the US, and are not free to meet people and have their movements monitored, although the UAE authorities have not imprisoned them and do not plan to prosecute them for any reason.

Sentencing in the case of Majid Khan, 35, who pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in February 2012, has been delayed to 2018. A sentencing hearing was scheduled for February 2016, after he pleaded guilty to moving funds to finance a bombing in Indonesia in 2003. He was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 prior to the bombing and was the last person to be tried before a Guantánamo military tribunal, during which he pleaded guilty under a plea bargain deal. Following arrest he disappeared into the CIA’s global secret prison network. The US Senate’s partial report into CIA torture last year shed some light on the horrific physical, psychological and sexual torture he was subjected to in order to coerce him to confess.

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20151102/NEWS02/151109819

The periodic review board for “forever prisoners” who are deemed too dangerous to release but cannot be tried has cleared another Yemeni prisoner for release. Mansoor Abdul Rahman al Dayfi arrived at Guantánamo on 9 February 2002. He has never been charged or tried. There are currently 48 prisoners cleared for release, the majority of who are from Yemen.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/guantanamo-parole-board-clears-yemeni-forever-prisoner-20151103-gkq4ww.html

Younis Chekkouri, who was released to Morocco in September, remains in jail there. A hearing scheduled for 4 November has been put back to 3 December. He remains detained without charge or trial.

http://www.startribune.com/moroccan-ex-guantanamo-inmate-faces-hearing-after-new-arrest/340044131/

Following a similar incident involving former Australian prisoner Mamdouh Habib, on 2 November, former French prisoner, Mourad Benchellali, who was released without charge or trial in 2005, was arrested as he entered Canada where he was invited to give a talk and take part in a documentary on fighting extremism. Earlier this year, he was prevented from boarding a plane to Canada from France as he is on a US no-fly list and the plane would pass through US airspace. This time he was arrested by Canadian border agents on suspicion of posing a threat to national security, even though he was invited to speak at a peace conference and about preventing youth extremism by speaking of his own experiences. He was not placed in immigration detention but sent to jail, with his French lawyers unaware of his location. On 4 November, he returned home to France voluntarily. Weeks later, he spoke at a forum at the Council of Europe about similar topics where he faced no such hostility.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ex-guantanamo-inmate-detained-in-canada-returns-to-france/article27119969/

On 5 November, following Barack Obama’s veto the first time, amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act Bill 2016, which budgets military spending for the year, were passed but did not affect the provisions on Guantánamo, which exclude transfers to the US mainland and also a legal prohibition on transfers to Yemen, Libya, Syria and Somalia. The amendments and the original veto related to spending provisions. Obama was not expected to use Guantánamo as an excuse to veto the bill again and instead signed the provisions into law on 25 November. Nonetheless, he issued a statement at the same time criticising the restriction this allegedly places on his ability to close Guantánamo, and highlighting the fact that executive action – to bring prisoners to the US mainland – is still an option available to him. Each year the US government passes the same restriction on prisoner transfers to the US under this law and in actual fact changes the situation of almost all the prisoners at Guantánamo Bay in no tangible way.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-leaves-himself-room-to-defy-congress-on-guantanamo-1448491660

In early November, the Obama administration again stated that it would soon present a plan to close Guantánamo to Congress, yet less than two weeks later this was delayed, again, and indefinitely. Obama has been claiming that a plan to close Guantánamo (which is actually just likely to alter its address) since the summer.

http://www.defenseone.com/politics/2015/11/white-house-delays-plan-close-guantanamo-again/123711/

On two separate occasions this month, in a televised interview and on a trip to Manila, Philippines, Barack Obama restated his famous claim that he will close Guantánamo and in Manila stated that by January 2016 there should be less than 100 prisoners held there. In 2009, Barack Obama had promised, and signed a provision to that end, that Guantánamo would not exist by January 2010.

Extraordinary Rendition:

On 9 November, the UK Supreme Court heard a claim by Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife Fatima Bouchar, who were rendered to torture by the Libyan authorities under Colonel Gaddafi in 2004 with the cooperation of the UK and US authorities. In 2013, the High Court in London ruled that they could not bring a claim against the former Labour government and intelligence officers, such as former MI6 head Sir Mark Allen, as it could damage diplomatic relations and national interests. Having won an appeal, the case is currently before the Supreme Court to decide whether or not it can proceed. The couple would like an apology and an admission of what was done to them.

http://www.theguardian.com/law/2015/nov/08/libyan-dissident-rendition-damages-supreme-court-belhaj

LGC Activities:

Our final Shut Guantánamo demonstration for this year is on Thursday 3 December at 12-1pm outside the US Embassy, Grosvenor Sq and 1.15-2.15pm outside Speaker’s Corner, Hyde Park, Marble Arch. Join us: https://www.facebook.com/events/526642437509435/

The LGC will mark the first anniversary of the partial publication of the US Senate’s CIA Torture Report in December 2014 with a panel discussion on 8 December focusing on the UK’s involvement and the personal, community and military ramifications of the use of torture. Please join us and our expert panel of speakers for a necessary discussion:  http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/panel-discussion-on-8-december-we.html

The London Guantánamo Campaign is continuing its weekly #GitmObama Twitter to raise awareness about the plight and existence of Guantánamo prisoners. Tweets that can be used during the action with this hashtag are provided in a pastebin (click on it and copy & paste the tweets) and everyone everywhere (who is on Twitter) is welcome to join in. The twitter storms are held on Mondays at 9pm GMT/ 4pm EST / 1pm PST. Please check our Twitter @shutguantanamo for further details and the pastebin to take part.

LGC Newsletter – July 2014

NEWS:

British residents:

Former British resident Ahmed Belbacha who returned to Algeria earlier this year was placed under judicial supervision upon his return to the country. At the end of June, he had a court hearing concerning his conviction in absentia in 2009 before an Algerian court for supporting a foreign terrorist organisation, in which he was given a 20-year sentence. The sentence is being reconsidered and at the hearing, the judge at the Algiers Criminal Court set the hearing back to a later date – possibly in September or October – as a large number of documents are missing from the original case file, including interviews and reports, as he had not been questioned about the charges in the past and as no psychiatric evaluation has been carried out on Belbacha. He had been placed in prison the day before but the judge asked for him to be released. His lawyer stated after the hearing that now that Belbacha is in Algeria and able to defend himself in court, the charges are no longer viable and that he is certain that Belbacha will be acquitted as “the case against him is completely non-existent!”

http://www.reporters.dz/affaire-ahmed-belbacha-ex-detenu-de-guantanamo-le-proces-reporte-pour-la-prochaine-session-criminelle/11286

Guantánamo Bay:

Following a ruling by the judge overseeing proceedings at the Guantánamo military tribunal, James Pohl, ordering the CIA to disclose files detailing the torture Abd Al-Nashiri was subject to while imprisoned in secret CIA prisons in different countries, one of the defendants accused of involvement in the 9/11 attacks, Ammar Al-Baluchi has asked for similar files related to the torture he faced to be disclosed and taken into consideration in his case. It is feared that this – consideration of the application by the judge and then disclosure and its impact on the current case – could further delay proceedings, however with the show trial still firmly stuck on procedural issues almost 13 years after the offence took place, and no timeline for an actual trial, the US is no hurry to prosecute or take the case forward.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/01/911-trial-blow-defendant-cia-torture-records

Judge Pohl has stepped down from the other case currently being heard by the Guantánamo military tribunal, that of Yemeni Abd Al-Nashiri accused of involvement in bombings of US naval vessels in the Gulf of Aden in 2000, due to scheduling conflicts and to ensure continuity in the 9/11 case. He will be replaced by Air Force Col. Vance Spath.

http://media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2014/07/10/16/10/19rugr.So.56.pdf

The case of the 5 defendants in the 9/11 case has been split as on 24 July Judge Pohl ruled that the case of Ramzi Binalshibh should be severed and dealt with separately and alone as legal issues relating to his case alone are holding up the trial of the other four defendants. The first issue to be considered in Binalshibh’s case is whether or not he has the mental capacity to stand trial having been diagnosed in 2008 as having a “serious mental disease” by military doctors.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/26/us/guantanamo-defendant-gets-own-trial.html?_r=1

A redacted memo issued by the U.S. Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in a case related to the death of American Anwar Al-Awlaki released in June under a Freedom of Information order and dated 2010, shortly before Canadian former Guantánamo child prisoner Omar Khadr’s 2010 military commission hearing, shows that the US deliberately designated Khadr an “unprivileged belligerent” to charge him with offences that the US knew did not exist under US or international law and to deny him protection under the Geneva Conventions.

http://www.lawfareblog.com/2014/07/defense-olc-memo-supports-invalidation-of-omar-khadrs-conviction/

On 30 June, Khadr’s US lawyer filed a motion to have the stay on Khadr’s case, imposed in March, lifted and his conviction quashed on the basis that “the disclosure of a previously secret memorandum […] which provided authoritative legal guidance to the Department of Defense several months prior to Mr. Khadr’s guilty plea, vitiates the theory of criminality underlying this prosecution and therefore defeats the premise of the Court’s order”, and consequently that the charges and conviction of Omar are bogus. On 7 July, the US government’s lawyers filed a motion to have this dismissed, stating that the memo is “irrelevant” to Khadr’s case. Khadr’s U.S. lawyer Sam Morison called this response predictable, however the court denied Khadr’s motion before his lawyers had an opportunity to respond.

On 8 July, Khadr won his appeal before the Alberta Appeal Court in Canada for him to serve a youth sentence as opposed to being held as an adult. This would entail the transfer of Khadr to a provincial jail where he will have better opportunities for rehabilitation and parole. The judge was quite unequivocal in her ruling that the offences could only mean that Khadr be held as a youth offender in Canada, given his age at the time. Nonetheless, he remains at the Bowden Institute, a medium-security adult prison, following an appeal to the Supreme Court by the Canadian government. Khadr agreed to stay where he is pending this appeal as he is comfortable in his current environment and provided that the ruling he is being held as a juvenile applies.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/07/08/khadr_should_be_serving_youth_sentence_court_rules.html  

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/07/14/khadr_stays_put_as_ottawa_sends_mixed_messages_on_case.html

Khadr’s Canadian lawyers have also brought a lawsuit against the federal government and the Canadian corrections system to allow Khadr the opportunity to speak to the media. Held since 2002, Khadr has never once – not in the media, not in the courts or in any public writings – had the opportunity to present his side of the story. Vilified by the Canadian media, he has never actually met or spoken to any journalists.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/omar-khadr-seeking-the-right-to-tell-his-story-to-reporters/article19718453/

Reports issued by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s own officials and office show that Omar Khadr is not a terrorist and is essentially a “good kid”, in spite of constant statements by Canadian government upholding his military tribunal conviction, which falls far below the conditions necessary for trial in Canada.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Harper+government+reports+show+Omar+Khadr+good+dangerous+terrorist+lawyer/10073818/story.html

Sunday 27 July marked the 12^th anniversary of Omar Khadr’s capture by the US following a gun battle in Afghanistan in which he was severely injured. The following article provides a good overview of what has happened recently in his case and where it currently stands: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/25161-the-trials-of-alleged-tween-terrorist-omar-khadr-of-canada

Judgment was handed down in the long-awaited military commission conviction appeal by Yemeni prisoner Ali Hamza Al-Bahlul, accused of providing Al Qaeda’s PR by making promotional videos for the organisation, and the only prisoner to be given a life sentence. In 2008, he was convicted on three charges of conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism and soliciting others to commit murder. Following the successful appeal by fellow Yemeni Salim Hamdan of his conviction in 2012, Al-Bahlul appealed as well and his convictions were all quashed by the federal appeals court in January 2013. In that case, the judges gave no reasoning for their decision to quash the convictions. Given the huge ramifications the case has on other pending military commissions and appeals of convictions, the US government sought a retrial “en banc” (where the case is then reheard by all the judges in the appeal court – 7 as opposed to 3) which was granted. The US government mainly contended that while the charges were not international war crimes – which it concedes – they could be considered war crimes under US domestic law.

http://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/8F42CB79020918FF85257D15004DBDDD/$file/11-1324-1502277.pdf

http://justsecurity.org/12880/quick-dirty-summary-of-and-reaction-to-the-al-bahlul-decision/

Rather than simplify and clarify matters, the case has instead made them much more complex and unclear. The 7 judges ruled to quash Al-Bahlul’s convictions for material support for terrorism and solicitation but upheld the conviction for conspiracy, a charge other prisoners have been convicted of and feature in other pending military commissions. The judgment overturns parts of the Hamdan ruling and also ruled to return the case back to the original 3-judge panel to consider some of the issues related to the conspiracy conviction, ultimately meaning that it could be overturned. Lawyers for Al-Bahlul have the option of waiting to see what the original panel then decides – not until at least next year – or appealing to the Supreme Court. In either case, whether or not his convictions are upheld, the future remains extremely precarious for Al-Bahlul himself, who remains imprisoned at Guantánamo - the quashing of his convictions could see him become a “forever” prisoner: http://justsecurity.org/12996/letter-editor-al-bahlul/

The appeals of former prisoners Canadian Omar Khadr and Australian David Hicks were stayed in March pending this judgment. The judgment as it is should mean that Hicks’ sole conviction for material support is now automatically invalidated and that this is purely an administrative matter. However, both he and Khadr, for whom the judgment is more obscure, may still have to wait along with Al-Bahlul the outcome of this judicial wrangling over the essentially flawed military commission process.

http://truth-out.org/news/item/25135-military-commissions-deferring-the-inevitable-at-guantanamo

Uruguay is likely to accept 6 prisoners over the coming month. Having asked to resettle a number of prisoners earlier this year, an issue raised during a visit by Uruguayan president Jose Mujica to the US in April, the US has finally completed the necessary paperwork on its side. The six are likely to include 4 Syrian prisoners, a Palestinian and Tunisian, all of whom have never been charged or tried and have long been cleared for release, but have not been as there is nowhere safe to send them. Uruguay anticipates hosting them as regular refugees.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/pentagon-prepares-to-transfer-six-guantanamo-detainees-to-uruguay-1405553466

One of the six is alleged to be Syrian Abu Wael Dhiab, currently on hunger strike and who has brought a high-profile court challenge against the Pentagon’s procedures for forcibly feeding detainees who are on a hunger strike. His transfer would most likely render his lawsuit moot, although there are several similar challenges.

Following two separate appearances before the Periodic Review Board last month, the Board has decided to clear Kuwaiti Fawzi Al-Odah for release while continuing to deem fellow countryman Fayiz Al-Kandari “almost certainly retains an extremist mindset and had close ties with high-level al-Qaida leaders in the past” and will remain held at Guantánamo indefinitely. Neither man has ever been charged or tried in the past 12 years of imprisonment.

Although the US has cleared 4 prisoners for release since restating the reviews over the past year, none of the prisoners cleared have been released.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/25/guantanamo-inmate-remain-prison-panel-rules

Extraordinary Rendition:

Amid growing demands for the UK government to admit to the extent of US use of the British-administered territory of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean for the extraordinary rendition programme, the government reported in parliament that files related to the issue had been destroyed by water damage during recent flooding.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/09/files-uk-role-cia-rendition-destroyed-diego-garcia-water-damage

Accused of a cover up, especially as there had been no substantial rain at the time the damage is claimed to have occurred, a week later it then reported that the files had been salvaged and dried out. The UK government is still refusing to admit the full extent of its own complicity in the extraordinary rendition programme and what it knew at the time of the alleged use of this territory.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10969535/Lost-US-extraordinary-rendition-files-have-dried-out-Foreign-Office-says.html

One prisoner who is alleged to have been flown through Diego Garcia, Libyan Abdel Hakim Belhadj, and his wife Fatima Bouchar, who were rendered from Southeast Asia to Libya in 2004 with the collusion of the UK brought an appeal on 21 July against a High Court ruling in favour of the government that he could not sue MI6 and the British government for their involvement in the rendition of himself and his family.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jul/21/libyan-dissident-abdel-hakin-belhaj-appeal-mi6-rendition

Former Bagram prisoner Yunus Rahmatullah, who was captured by British troops in Iraq in 2004 and handed over to the US who rendered him to Bagram in Afghanistan, from where he was released to Pakistan in April this year with other Pakistani prisoners is bringing a lawsuit against the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Office for complicity in his torture and abuse he suffered in both Iraq and Afghanistan over 10 years. In 2011, the Court of Appeal ruled that he was unlawfully detained but in the Supreme Court, government lawyers were able to successfully claim that the UK could not get the US to act to release him.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jul/29/mod-foreign-office-yunus-rahmatullah-torture-case

Judgment was handed down by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on 24 July ruling that Poland had acted in breach of its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights, particularly as concerns the absolute ban on the use of torture, when it hosted and operated a secret CIA torture prison in Stare Kiejkuty. The facility has since closed down. The case was brought by two prisoners currently facing military commission at Guantánamo Bay, Abu Zubaydah and Abd Al-Nashiri, who both “disappeared” for at least two years into the CIA’s networks of secret prisons around the world. The former was held and tortured in Poland for 6 months and the latter for 9 months. The court found Poland guilty of involvement in extraordinary rendition and ordered the Polish government to pay each man €100,000 in compensation and a further €30,000 to Abu Zubaydah in costs. The judgment outlines the journey of the two men to Guantánamo and the horrific torture they faced at the facility. This is the second time the court has ruled against a European state for complicity in rendition, and further cases are pending against Lithuania and Romania. A major blow for the CIA’s rendition programme, while the Polish government gets a slap on the wrists and is ordered to pay a fine, no agents involved have been prosecuted as yet and the CIA is still not subject to any prosecution, while Abu Zubaydah and Al-Nashiri, the victims, face military commissions and ongoing detention at Guantánamo and have never been given the opportunity for torture rehabilitation. In many ways, outside of the legal framework of using the law to check the extralegal behaviour of governments, the judgment remains largely pyrrhic unless it can in some way influence their respective military commissions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-28460628

LGC Activities:

The July “Shut Guantánamo!” demonstration was attended by 4 people. The August

demonstration will be at 12-1pm outside the US Embassy and 1.15-2.15pm outside Speaker’s Corner, Marble Arch on Thursday 7^th August: https://www.facebook.com/events/262069207321360/

LGC Newsletter – March 2014

NEWS:

British residents:

Shaker Aamer has dropped his torture case against MI6 in the hope that this will allow him to return home to his family in the UK. Since 2011, the metropolitan police have been investigating claims he made that MI6 officers were present when he was tortured in Afghanistan before being sent to Guantánamo Bay. He has said that he hopes by dropping the criminal case MI6 will drop its objections to him returning to the UK. Aamer has never faced any charges or a trial in over 12 years. The British government has been seeking his return since 2007.

www.dailymail.co.uk%2Fnews%2Farticle-2592512%2FShaker-Aamer-Briton-held-Guantanamo-drops-torture-claims-freedom-bid.html

Close Guantánamo demonstration on 29 March

Guantánamo Bay:

Emad Abdullah Hassan, a 34-year old Yemeni prisoner, who was cleared for release in 2009 and has never been charged, successfully brought a first case by a Guantánamo prisoner to challenge the methods used by the US military to force feed hunger-striking prisoners. Lawyers for Hassan claim that he has been force fed more than 5000 times since 2007, when he went on permanent hunger strike. As a result of the methods used, he has suffered substantial internal damage and is very ill. This is the first time that a federal US court has considered the legality and heard about how the force-feeding methods used are in contravention of accepted rules. Mr Hassan’s lawyers argued that the methods used are tantamount to torture. This is the first such case since a court ruling in February that allowed the prisoners to challenge these methods and the conditions of their detention. In a statement, Emad Hassan said, “All I want is what President Obama promised – my liberty, and fair treatment for others. I have been cleared for five years, and I have been force-fed for seven years. This is not a life worth living, it is a life of constant pain and suffering. While I do not want to die, it is surely my right to protest peacefully without being degraded and abused every day.”

http://www.reprieve.org/2014_03_11-Guantánamo -prisoner-launches-historic-legal-challenge-to-force-feeding-abuse.html

Former British resident Ahmed Belbacha was returned to his family in Algeria on 13 March. Belbacha, 44, had never been tried or charged in over 12 years of detention at Guantánamo Bay. He had previously lived in Bournemouth for over 18 months and the LGC campaigned for him for many years as a British resident. Although the British government never sought to have Belbacha returned to the UK, considering him a failed asylum seeker, he had previously expressed a wish not to return to Algeria and to a safe third country instead; in 2009, he was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison there following an unfair trial. However, his return now is in accordance with his wishes and those of his family. Belbacha is likely to be detained temporarily, as have all others returned Algerians, before being released to his family. As with other prisoners released to Algeria, his lawyers will continue to monitor his well-being. He had been involved in the ongoing hunger strike. 154 prisoners remain at Guantánamo Bay; Ahmed Belbacha is the only person who has been released this year.

http://www.reprieve.org.uk/press/gitmo_cleared_ahmed_belbacha_returns_to_algeria/

The US has been in negotiations with several Latin American countries including Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay concerning sending several Guantánamo prisoners to them who have been cleared for release but cannot be returned to their own countries. A Colombian minister has expressed concerns about Guantánamo prisoners being sent there. On the other hand, the Uruguayan president José Mujica has responded positively, stating that the country would be able to host up to 6 prisoners and that they would be held as ordinary refugees and not as political prisoners or subject to any specific restrictions. Reports have stated that Uruguay may accept 4 Syrian prisoners and a Palestinian who have been cleared for release but cannot return home. Other reports have stated that Mujica may ask the US to release 3 Cuban prisoners as well in return for his goodwill gesture. Mujica had previously been a political prisoner himself.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/03/24/4016302/mujica-guantanamo-detainees-could.html

Dennis Edney speaks in London on 11 March

Former Guantánamo prisoner Omar Khadr is currently being held at a military hospital in Saskatchewan, Canada, following surgery to a shoulder injury he sustained in Afghanistan in 2002 and which has not been treated in his past 12 years of incarceration at Guantánamo and in Canada. Earlier this year, he was transferred to a medium-security prison. During the operation, bone was scrapped away from the wound which has remained untreated all these years. He is now recovering from the operation. Damage to his eye in 2002 has also remained untreated to date.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/omar-khadr-in-saskatchewan-prison-hospital-after-surgery-on-damaged-shoulder/article17675511/

A recent visit by US president Barack Obama to Europe saw anti-Guantánamo protests greet him in Brussels, outside a meeting at the European Parliament. Among other matters, including drone warfare, the United Nations Human Rights Committee criticised the US over the continuing existence of Guantánamo in its country report.

It has emerged that two soldiers serving at Guantánamo Bay have been accused of rape by female soldiers of lower ranks. Both were facing sentence, however one has since has the charges against him dropped in return for discharge from the army. A trial will be held involving another soldier in early April accused of raping a female soldier last year and sexually assaulting two others.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/03/28/4025367/military-resolves-a-guards-guantanamo.html

Extraordinary Rendition

Irish peace activist Margaretta D’Arcy, 79, was released 9 and half weeks into a three-month sentence for opposing the use of Shannon Airport in the west of Ireland by the US military as a stopover point for drone aircrafts, transport of troops to Iraq and Afghanistan and for rendition flights. In spite of denial of involvement in rendition flights by the Irish government, activists and human rights organisations, including United Nations’ bodies, have all insisted Ireland must investigate its involvement inthe facilitation of torture flights through Shannon Airport.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/activist-margaretta-darcy-released-from-prison-30116391.html

March demo at Marble Arch

LGC Activities:

The March “Shut Guantánamo!” demonstration was attended by 3 people. The April

demonstration will be at the regular time of 12-1pm outside the US Embassy and 1.15-2.15pm outside Speaker’s Corner, Marble Arch on Thursday 3 April: https://www.facebook.com/events/607010606047964/ This demonstration will also commemorate the 11^th anniversary of the Iraq War.

The LGC hosted a series of talks in London and York on 11-20 March given by Canadian lawyer Dennis Edney QC to raise awareness about his client Omar Khadr. The talks were very well attended. Many of the events were filmed.

The LGC supported a “Close Guantánamo” demonstration organised by students from the University of Westminster Amnesty Society outside the US Embassy London on 29 March. Around 20 people attended the demonstration.