NEWS:
Guantánamo Bay
On 5 July, the Canadian government of Justin Trudeau announced that it
had reached a settlement with former Guantánamo prisoner Omar Khadr, 30. It
agreed to pay him CAN$10.5 million (£6 million) and give him an apology, ending
a lawsuit filed by his lawyers while he was still in Guantánamo. They sued the
Canadian government for its complicity in his torture by the US and the breach
of his constitutional rights when he was still a teenager. This was backed by a
Canadian Supreme Court ruling in 2010 that Canadian government officials had
participated in interrogations knowing that Khadr has been tortured, as shown
in the documentary film You Don’t like the Truth: Four Days inside
Guantánamo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I5R3qkYnaI
The payment was expedited ahead of a court case brought in Canada by the
widow of the US army sergeant he is alleged to have killed and another soldier
who claims Khadr blinded him. Khadr pleaded guilty to the murder in a secret
plea bargain in 2010 that would see him leave Guantánamo in 2012; it was his
only way out of the prison. The court case aimed to block the payment to Khadr for them to receive the funds, following their award of $134 million (£103
million) in 2015 in a US lawsuit they filed against Khadr. Lawyers for the
couple filed the case in the Canadian courts in anticipation that Khadr would
settle his previous case with the Canadian government. However, when their case
went to court on 13 July, a judge in Toronto dismissed the claim to have
Khadr’s assets frozen. The judge called the request “extraordinary”.
The
settlement, which is an admission of wrongdoing by the Canadian government, has
provoked a storm of controversy among supporters of the right-wing government
responsible for the abuse of Omar Khadr’s human rights.
On 7
July, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions visited Guantánamo Bay with his deputy
to show support for the continuing existence of the detention camp. He had
previously called the facility “a very fine place”. Although it was his first
visit to Guantánamo as attorney general, he had visited in 2005 under George Bush’s
administration.
The visit had raised expectations that President Trump might send new
prisoners to Guantánamo as he has said he would, however on 21 July, rather
than send a foreign prisoner to Guantánamo, an Algerian-Irish terrorism suspect
was extradited from Spain to face trial in a US federal court, suggesting that
Trump may not fill up Guantánamo with new prisoners after all.
Pre-trial hearings at Guantánamo in the case of five men accused of
involvement in the September 2001 attacks in New York have been put on indefinite
hold over a dispute between the judge, Army Colonel James Pohl, and military
officials about how he travels to Guantánamo Bay. He says that he must be kept
separate from other participants in the proceedings, including lawyers, family
members and journalists who travel over by plane. He has used a speedboat to
travel over to Guantánamo. However, a change of policy in June means no longer
has access to the boat. He then ordered the hearings be put on holding until
the issue is resolved. The next set of pre-trial hearings are set for late
August and it is unclear that they will go ahead.
The judge in the death penalty case of Abd Al-Nashiri, Air Force Colonel
Vance Spath, has issued a similar order halting proceedings.
A resolution to the problem is currently being studied.
An appeal against the conviction of former Sudanese prisoner Ibrahim Al
Qosi was halted shortly after it started after a dispute over his legal
representation before the military tribunal. Al Qosi was convicted through a
plea bargain in 2010 of being a driver for Osama Bin Laden. He was transferred
to Sudan in 2012 after release. He has since “disappeared” and media claims
have been made that he has joined Al Qaeda based on alleged videos although
there is no substantive evidence of this or his whereabouts. The appeal
tribunal, the Court of Military Commission Review, sent the case to a lower
court to find out whether Al Qosi wants to appeal and to determine whether he
has taken up arms against the US. During the hearing, the prosecution argued
that only the original lawyer in his case, one of the lawyers who filed the
appeal Suzanne Lachelier, was able to represent him and that he may not be aware
than an appeal was under way; it argued a unilateral appeal cannot be brought
in his defence. Defence lawyers stated that they can bring the case even though
they have no contact with Al Qosi. The appeal case against a Guantánamo
military tribunal conviction is being heard by the same judge hearing cases
before the military tribunal. According to one of the defence lawyers, “The
reality of this dilemma is that we’re in new territory. This has never been
done.”
On 20 July, former French prisoners Mourad Benchellali and Nizar Sassi filed
a request to have former US president George W. Bush and Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld summoned to France to be questioned in their case against the
arbitrary detention and torture they faced in US hands. Both men were released
without charge and returned to France in 2005, where they filed a complaint
immediately against the treatment they received. On 19 April, the Paris public
prosecutor’s office requested the dismissal of the case as no US official has
been prosecuted or brought for questioning. It is up to the judge to decide
whether to drop the case. Lawyers for the two men have asked the judge to issue
an arrest warrant for Major Geoffrey Miller, who commanded Guantánamo from November
2002 to April 2004.
Former prisoner Syrian refugee Jihad Dhiab was deported from Morocco on
22 July back to Uruguay after he made another attempt to leave the country and
reunite with his family who are refugees in Turkey. Officials in Uruguay
apparently did not know that he had left the country as he travelled on a fake
Tunisian passport which was detected when he arrived for a stopover in Morocco.
Promised by his lawyers and officials that he would be reunited with his family
when he left Guantánamo in 2014, Dhiab has not seen his wife in over 16 years.
His family are also refugees from the current conflict in Syria. This was his
fourth attempt to leave Uruguay, following previous attempted visits to Brazil,
South Africa and Russia. He was questioned by Interpol on his return to the
country and later released.
Extraordinary Rendition:
On 28 July, a judge in Washington ruled that a case against two CIA
contractors who designed the extraordinary rendition’s torture programme can go
ahead in September, in spite of various arguments brought up by them, including
some of the defences Nazis used during the Nuremberg trials. The case was
brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of three
victims. If successful, the case is likely to lead to other victims bringing
claims as well.
LGC Activities:
The July Shut Guantánamo! monthly demonstration was on 6 July. Our
next monthly demonstration is on Thursday 3 August at 12-1pm outside the US
Embassy, Grosvenor Square, W1A, and 1.15-2.15pm outside Speaker’s Corner, Hyde
Park, opposite Marble Arch: https://www.facebook.com/events/288464181622576/
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