LGC Newsletter – December 2013

NEWS:

Guantánamo Bay:

Nine prisoners were released from Guantánamo Bay this month, bringing the number of remaining prisoners to 155 in total. All nine men had been cleared for release many years earlier. On 5 December, it was announced that Djamel Ameziane, who had been on hunger strike and tube-fed since 2008, and Belkecem BenSayah, had been returned to Algeria. Both men had strongly opposed being returned to the country, particularly Djamel Ameziane, who had hoped to seek asylum elsewhere, having fled the country during the civil war in the 1990s fearing persecution; he had a pending application for resettlement in Canada. Upon return to the country, both men “disappeared” until they were released on 16 December.

The return of the two men, particularly of Ameziane to Algeria sparked criticism from various bodies and NGOs, including the UN, as the repatriation was in violation of the principle of non-refoulement, “which prohibits transfers and deportations of individuals to countries where they may run the risk of being tortured.”

Other Algerians released from Guantánamo also would have preferred to stay at the prison facility than be returned to their country, and were also detained and “disappeared” upon release and continue to face persecution.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/05/guantanamo-bay-algerian-prisoners-released

On 16 December, two Saudi prisoners, Said Muhammad Husyan Qahtani, and Hamoud Abdullah Hamoud were released; both men were cleared for release in 2009.

Their release was followed by the release two days later of two Sudanese prisoners to their home country: Noor Uthman Mohammed, who had completed his sentence following conviction before a military commission in 2011, having pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in a plea bargain to avoid a life sentence, and Ibrahim Othman Ibrahim Idris, whose released was ordered by a judge in October, and not opposed by the US government, on the grounds of severe mental health – shortly after arrival at Guantánamo, he was diagnosed as schizophrenic – and physical health problems. Upon return to Sudan, both men claimed they had been tortured at Guantánamo on a regular basis and Sudanese civil society organisations have demanded an apology from the US for its treatment of Sudanese nationals, dismissing Mohammed’s conviction as having been obtained through an unfair plea bargain.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/17/us/two-guantanamo-prisoners-transferred-to-saudi-arabia.html

On 30 December, the three remaining ethnic Uighur Chinese prisoners, whose release had been ordered in 2008, but who remained at Guantánamo for fear of persecution by the Chinese authorities, were sent to Slovakia, who accepted three other prisoners in 2009 who were in need of a safe third state to turn to.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/12/31/3845422/last-3-uighurs-leave-guantanamo.html

There was further good news regarding the release of cleared prisoners on 26 December when President Barack Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2014 which included provisions to make it easier to transfer, and thus release, prisoners, although prisoners are still not allowed to be transferred to the US itself. The provisions mean that over half of the prisoners, who have been cleared for release and never charged or tried, could soon be freed. Human rights NGOs have called on the government to act quickly on this new opportunity to release many more prisoners. In passing the law, Obama took the opportunity to criticise Congress for hindering his ability to do more to close Guantánamo.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-obama-guantanamo-prison-20131226,0,6818077.story#axzz2orXdXdYf

Former Guantánamo prisoner Omar Khadr’s lawyers returned to court in Canada on 18 December in a $20 million lawsuit originally brought against the Canadian government when Khadr was still held at Guantánamo for its collusion in his torture and abuse by the US military at Bagram in Afghanistan and at Guantánamo Bay. The lawsuit, originally brought in 2004, concerns abuses of Khadr’s rights by his government, and his lawyers claim there is new evidence to show that the Canadian government denied him his constitutional rights while colluding with the US. The lawsuit claims that the Canadian “governments [at the time of his detention] were not passive bystanders in Khadr’s incarceration, but willingly co-operated with the U.S. in violation of Canadian and international laws,” as well as failed to recognise him as a child soldier.

In new documents filed as part of the case, Omar Khadr has publicly stated for the first time that he only pleaded guilty because he was in a “hopeless situation”, and a guilty plea would be his most likely way out of Guantánamo Bay. He also states that the agreement in the plea bargain, and the facts as laid out in the case, were put together entirely by the US government. He also stated that “he has never believed Jews or Americans should be killed or deserve to die, and says he never willingly joined an al-Qaida terrorist cell.” He also said that “he has no memories of that battle or of the grenade that killed Sgt. Christopher Speer”.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Left+with+hopeless+choice+Omar+Khadr+explains+warcrimes/9284158/story.html

When the case came to hearing, the judge rejected the Canadian government’s claim to have the case dismissed but asked his lawyers to rewrite the claim into a broader submission to include the new issues, which will be presented to him in mid-January.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/judge-won-t-toss-amended-omar-khadr-lawsuit-but-wants-changes-1.2469177

Days before this court hearing, Omar Khadr was reclassified as a medium-security risk prisoner, instead of maximum risk, and is likely to be transferred to the Bowden Correctional Institution north of Calgary early next year. This followed a decision in August to reclassify his status. At Guantánamo Bay, he had been assessed as minimum risk. Medium-risk status will give him access to education and rehabilitation programmes that will make easier for him to be given parole.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Khadr+reclassified+likely+transferred+Bowden/9285742/story.html

New (redacted) documents that have come to light through a freedom of information (FOI) request show that the Australian government of John Howard made false statements and knew that the US would use evidence obtained through the use of torture in the military commission of former prisoner David Hicks, and subsequently that he was tortured in US custody, following his capture in Afghanistan in 2001. The documents include e-mails and cables between Australian and US officials. Like Omar Khadr, Hicks is in the process of appealing his conviction before a military commission, which was also effectively his only way out of Guantánamo. He was released in 2007 and had to serve the rest of his sentence in Australia.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/guantanamo-bay-foi-reveals-howard-government-knew-david-hicks-would-not-get-a-fair-trial-20131228-300oy.html

The pre-trial hearing resumed on 9 December in the case of 5 prisoners alleged to have been involved in the 11 September 2001 attacks, with a closed hearing on the first day. In the next two days of the hearing, the proceedings were interrupted several times by one of the defendants, Ramzi Bin Al-Shibh, who was removed from the courtroom. Evidence obtained through torture was one of the issues dealt with during the hearing, which has now been halted until Al-Shibh is subject to a mental health assessment to see if he is fit to stand trial. While the trial is set to resume in January or February, further proceedings will be suspended pending the examination, which may last up to one year.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/12/19/3827438/military-judge-halts-sept-11-trial.html 

In the meantime, the trial judge has ordered the US government to preserve whatever is left of the CIA Bush-era secret torture prisons, or “black sites”, around the world, which could provide evidence once the actual trial starts, at the earliest, in 2015.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/12/20/3829898/guantanamo-judge-to-us-government.html

Abd Al-Nashiri, a Saudi citizen facing a separate military commission, and potentially the death penalty, for his alleged involvement in 2000 in the bombing of the USS Cole warship in the Gulf of Aden lost a case to have the military commission deemed to lack jurisdiction to hear the case as the attack took place prior to any declared hostilities between the US and Yemen and was thus a peacetime attack. While he did not contest the label of “enemy combatant” in the case, he sought to have the case heard by a civil district court but the court held that in this case a military court had jurisdiction.

http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2013/12/20/12-35475.pdf

Extraordinary Rendition

On 2-3 December, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg heard a case against Poland brought by two prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay, Abd Al Nashiri and Abu Zubaydah, both currently facing trial before military commissions, for the country’s role in their torture and rendition before they were taken to Guantánamo Bay. The case was brought following the Polish government’s failure to investigate and hold responsible officials to account. The Polish government failed in a bid to have the hearing held in secret but the first day was held in closed session, whereas the second day was public. A judgment is expected in early January.

http://www.interights.org/news/131/index.html

Abu Anas Al-Libi, who was kidnapped and rendered to the US by the US military from the streets of Tripoli, Libya, in October 2013, had a pre-trial hearing where charges were laid against him for alleged involvement in the bombing of US Embassies in East Africa in 1998, along with two other men, Adel Abdel Bary and Khalid Al Fawzi, who lost their lengthy extradition battle to the US from the UK in October 2012. A trial date for the three men has been set for November 2014. During the time that he “disappeared” off the streets of Tripoli and was later claimed to be held and interrogated on board the USS San Antonio, it is unknown whether he was abused and possibly tortured. Questions remain over the legality of this operation; he was transferred to the US mainland due to concerns about his health.

http://www.libyaherald.com/2013/12/13/abu-anas-al-libi-new-york-terror-trial-date-fixed/#axzz2otrvElSb

On 19 December, the government published a report into the findings of the Detainee Inquiry http://www.detaineeinquiry.org.uk/2013/12/statement-by-the-inquiry-december-2013/ led by retired judge, Sir Peter Gibson. The report, of the partial findings of the inquiry which collapsed in early 2012 due to the weight of criminal investigations against the government for its involvement in torture and rendition abroad, looked at the documents provided to it, but did not hold any interviews with victims or their representatives, as it was boycotted by them early on, and does not offer any fact-finding or conclusions. The government originally received the report in mid-2012 but did not publish it until now. The report was redacted prior to publication. The government then announced that, contrary to its initial promises, the parliamentary intelligence and security committee (ISC) would take over the inquiry; the ISC lacks independence and transparency and its members are nominated by the prime minister.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/18/inquiry-rendition-torture-isc?CMP=twt_gu

On 20 December, a High Court judge dismissed a case brought against MI6 and former foreign secretary Jack Straw by Libyan rendition victim Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife, as it would harm UK-US relations and British interests, as British and American intelligence officers were involved. The judge did, however, state that the claim that he was unlawfully abducted was “well-founded”. Mr Belhaj’s lawyers plan to appeal the ruling.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/20/libyan-rendition-claim-uk-interests

Five non-Afghan prisoners held at Bagram prison for over a decade following their rendition there lost an appeal to have the right to file habeas corpus petitions to know the reasons for their detention, as has been granted to Guantánamo prisoners. The appeal judges upheld a previous ruling made in 2012 that the US does not have jurisdiction over Bagram to allow the prisoners to enjoy such rights as it does over Guantánamo http://www.lawfareblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Maqaleh-et-al-Opinion-12-24-2013.pdf Effectively, prisoners held at Bagram are held in worse conditions and have fewer rights than prisoners at Guantánamo. Following the handover of Bagram to the Afghan authorities in 2012, whereby the US only retains control over around 50 foreign prisoners that it considers high value, many of the Afghan prisoners have been released. One of the appellants, Hamidullah, who was detained as a minor and has never been tried or charged, was released to Pakistan along with five other Pakistani prisoners. However, on their return to their own country, they have been imprisoned by the authorities there and there have been some claims of rough treatment. They now face trial in Pakistan with a hearing scheduled for late January.

http://www.brecorder.com/general-news/172:pakistan/1265322:six-citizens-repatriated-from-bagram-being-interrogated-lhc-informed/

LGC Activities:

There is no monthly “Shut Down Guantánamo!” in January. Instead, please join us on Saturday 11 January at 2-4pm outside the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square for a demonstration to mark 12 years of Guantánamo Bay. Details here: http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/london-marks-12-years-of-guantanamo-bay.html and https://www.facebook.com/events/246710665485484/

LGC Newsletter – November 2011

NEWS:

Guantánamo Bay:
The first military commission under President Obama started on 9 November. Abdul Rahim Al-Nashiri, a 46-year old Saudi national, accused of involvement in the 2000 attack on a US warship, the USS Cole in Yemen, which killed 17 sailors and injured 40 others, was arraigned before a tribunal at Guantánamo Bay, where the charges against him were read out. President Obama had, at the beginning of his term as president, suspended the use of military commissions as both the proceedings and the evidence cases are based on are dubious. Indeed, in Al-Nashiri’s case, which could see him subject to the death penalty ten years after he was kidnapped and detained, evidence was obtained through the use of waterboarding. Al-Nashiri is one of three Guantánamo prisoners the CIA admitted to having used this torture method on in 2009. He also spent four years at secret CIA prisons around the world before being taken to Guantánamo; he previously said he had only confessed to the charges due to the torture. Some media, families of the victims and human rights NGO observers were allowed to attend the hearing. The charges read out included murder and terrorism-related offences concerning this attack and two others in 2000 and 2002. Al-Nashiri told the court that he wished to continue being represented by both his military and civilian lawyers and decided not to plead guilty or innocent to the charges until a later date. The judge set a trial date for November 2012, which is likely to fall after the US presidential elections. Mr Al-Nashiri’s trial, the first under Obama’s revamped system, is likely to raise many questions about the treatment of prisoners, the status of the prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay and other related issues. If convicted, in a trial which is likely to take years, Al-Nashiri faces the death penalty, and if acquitted, under the current rules of the American administration, he could be held perpetually without conviction.

The debate over provisions in the US law concerning military funding for the coming year, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which include measures which would legalise “enhanced interrogation techniques” such as waterboarding, perpetuate the detention of prisoners at Guantánamo and give preference to military tribunals over civilian trials for Guantánamo prisoners and individuals suspected of terrorism offences caught by the US both at home and abroad, has now moved to the Senate (equivalent to the House of Lords). A proposal has been put forward by Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte to favour military tribunals and not subject suspects to criminal procedures before civilian courts, moving the definition of terrorism officially from being a criminal act to being an act of war. The standards of proof and procedure before criminal courts are far higher and fairer. As demonstrated by the Al-Nashiri case above as well, the standards and procedures in current military tribunals are still being tested out. Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and 30 other human rights and civil liberties NGOs in the United States sent a letter to the Senate asking senators to oppose the amendments proposed by Congress and to prevent these measures being passed: http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/seriously-senate-considering-repeal-anti-torture-measures President Obama has the right to veto the bill, to prevent these measures being passed, and has already threatened to do so.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204753404577064281921470006.html#articleTabs%3Darticle Contrary to his early promises as president, President Obama in his first term as president has backtracked completely on his campaign pledge to close Guantánamo. Instead, over the past few years, his government has acted to legalise and perpetuate the illegal detention of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, in addition to not acting to repeal extraordinary rendition, a 1995 policy introduced by the Bill Clinton government, and has allowed facilities like Bagram to swell to over four times the size they were prior to his presidency and for the US to retain control over prisons it runs in Afghanistan after the handover of control to the Afghan authorities. Ten years on, instead of moving forward on Guantánamo, the American government is moving backwards into a time before law and legality. A recent Miami Herald article claimed Guantánamo Bay was the most expensive prison in the world to run, where the average cost of keeping one prisoner without charge or trial for one year far exceeds the cost of a full undergraduate degree in the United States, where university education is also notoriously expensive. http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/11/08/2493042/guantanamo-bay-the-most-expensive.html

British resident in Guantánamo Bay, Shaker Aamer, has now spent over 10 years in illegal American detention without charge or trial. According to the legal charity Reprieve, Mr Aamer’s physical and mental health is rapidly deteriorating with his prolonged detention. Renewed demands have been made for his release to the British government.
http://reprieve.org.uk/press/2011_11_24_shaker_anniversary/

Extraordinary rendition:
The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, has expressed concerns about the transparency and openness of the upcoming Detainee (Gibson) Inquiry. While commending the government for holding an inquiry, he is concerned that the restrictions placed on it will not allow the truth of what the intelligence services have been involved in to come to light.
Amnesty International UK has recently launched a new campaign calling on the government to rethink the structure of the Inquiry. Take action by writing to the Prime Minister at:
http://action.amnesty.org.uk/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1194&ea.campaign.id=12399

LGC Activities:
Eight people joined the November Shut Down Guantánamo! demonstration on Friday 4 November. The December demonstration will be held on Friday 2 December at 12-1pm outside the US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, London W1A 1AE and 1.15-2.15pm outside Speaker’s Corner, Hyde Park (opposite Marble Arch).Please join us for the last demonstration this year and please note that there is NO monthly demonstration in January. Please watch out for details of our January action shortly instead.
This month’s action: http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/215928415146600/

After the November demonstration, some activists took the word down to the Occupy London Stock Exchange camp next to St Paul’s Cathedral. The following is a statement given by the activists about why Guantánamo must close: http://thevoicesfromoccupylondon.tumblr.com/post/12564430048/london-guantanamo-bay-campaign-4-november-2011

LGC Newsletter – August 2011

Guantánamo Bay:
24-year old Canadian prisoner, Omar Khadr, the first person to be tried, last year, for war crimes committed as a minor since World War II, has replaced his Canadian legal team. Dennis Edney and Nathan Whitling, who represented Khadr pro bono and tirelessly for the past eight years, have been replaced by John Norris and Brydie Bethell. The news came in a letter from Khadr in which he thanked his former legal team for their work and support. Although his former lawyers have not commented, it is feared that Khadr was coerced to sign the typed letter and did not do so freely. Convicted of the murder of a US serviceman in Afghanistan in 2002, when he was aged just 15, he was sentenced to 40 years by a military tribunal but that was reduced through a secret plea bargain. He is due to return to Canada in October this year to serve the rest of his sentence.

Extraordinary rendition:
A habeas corpus case brought by the human rights NGO Reprieve for a Pakistani prisoner who has been held at the prison at Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan without charge since at least 2004 has been dismissed by the High Court in London. Yunus Rahmatullah (http://reprieve.org.uk/cases/yunusrahmatullah/) and another man were both captured in Iraq in 2004 by British forces who handed them over to the US military which has held them ever since and consequently “rendered” them to Bagram in Afghanistan. The handover of prisoners who potentially face torture is illegal and consequently the Foreign Office sought to deny knowledge of the men and then refused to disclose their identities. Reprieve sought to rely on habeas corpus – the common law right to know why one is being detained – to pressurise the British government to get the Americans to release Mr Rahmatullah, however the High Court decided that the matter is entirely in the hands of the US and not the concern of the British government. Reprieve intends to appeal this decision.

On 4 August, almost one month after the terms of reference and protocol for the handling of information in the forthcoming Detainee (Gibson) Inquiry into allegations of the involvement of British intelligence services in torture abroad, a coalition of 10 human rights NGOs and lawyers representing victims wrote to the Inquiry informing it of their withdrawal as they cannot cooperate with its stated terms, which are also in breach of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights – the absolute ban on torture. Other criticisms lie in the limited scope of the inquiry, its use of secrecy and limited use of evidence, the limited ability to call witnesses and question key individuals, the lack of transparency and the limited role given to the very victims whose allegations of torture and abuse over the past few years led to the inquiry being called. As proposed, the Inquiry will be ineffective with little purpose, serving as little more than a waste of public funds and time without addressing key issues and possible failings that both victims and the public, whose taxes have funded this alleged involvement in torture, have a right to know. The Inquiry has responded and both the panel leading it and the government have urged all parties concerned to reconsider and has stated that the Inquiry will be held nonetheless.
For more on this news: http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.com/2011/08/human-rights-ngos-victims-and-their.html
In a separate criminal inquiry into possible abuse of a prisoner by an MI6 agent, referred to the police by the agency, British police are seeking to interview prisoners at Guantánamo Bay concerning the possible involvement of this agent in the abuse of a non-British prisoner. The police cannot question any prisoners unless they are given permission to do so by the American government. Once this investigation is complete, the Detainee Inquiry can start its proceedings.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hzuraIXiI9z446Va4mVeHkjjyTOA?docId=38d4dd3621f94cc9becc0e64dca80192

While the Coalition government wishes to use the Detainee Inquiry to draw a line under allegations made relating to the previous Labour government, allegations have continued to emerge since last year’s election. At the time of the general election last year, allegations emerged of a British man being tortured in a Bangladeshi prison with the knowledge of the UK security services. In August, proceedings were started at the High Court in London in a claim brought by a Kenyan man who claims he was kidnapped in Kenya last summer and “rendered” to Uganda, where he was held illegally, interrogated and tortured by individuals who claimed to be from the FBI and one from British intelligence. The agent is alleged to have taken part in the abuse of Omar Awadh Omar, 37, who was beaten during questioning.
More on this news: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/17/torture-suspect-claims-abuse?INTCMP=SRCH

An American appeals court has given leave to two American security contractors to sue Donald Rumsfeld, whom they allege permitted policies which allowed them to be tortured while working in Iraq in 2005 and 2006. The two men, Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel, were detained by their own army and subject to abuses including sleep deprivation, denied food, water and warmth and threatened with beatings at Camp Cropper, after trying to blow the whistle on the illegal activities of the company they were working for. They were both held for several months and never charged. Rumsfeld had pleaded immunity; however, this was rejected by the court, as the men had provided enough evidence to show that he had personally effected the policies allowing their abuse. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14453895

Following a case in a New York court between 2007 and 2011, concerning a private company accused of facilitating torture flights as part of the US’s extraordinary rendition programme, Reprieve has released a series of over 1500 documents which were a part of the case and which disclose a considerable amount of information for the first time about the business of extraordinary rendition. For the first time, some of the companies involved are identified as well as information about the “rendition” of particular victims. Details of flights and stopovers at airports all over the world, including Glasgow, Edinburgh and London Luton airports are provided as well as the revelation that a jet owned by Liverpool FC owner Philip Morse was used for over 55 “torture” flights passing and stopping off in various locations in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas (Guantánamo Bay). In between these flights, the jet was used to transport a baseball team to its matches in the US. As the documents name companies and their senior management and executives, it is possible that these documents will be used to bring prosecutions by victims against them.
http://reprieve.org.uk/press/2011_08_31_rendition_documents/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/31/us-firms-torture-flights-rendition?intcmp=239

LGC Activities:
Five people attended the August Shut Down Guantánamo! demonstration. The September demonstration will be on Friday 2 September at 12-1pm outside the US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, London W1A 1AE and then 1.15-2.15pm outside Speaker’s Corner (Marble Arch) http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=131470260278724
Media on the August demonstration:
http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/95F88C3C-869C-4723-8827-9CB0300BB84E.htm
(In Arabic, pictures from the demonstration)
http://www.demotix.com/news/777668/future-orange-protest-against-guantanamo-us-embassy-london
http://www.demotix.com/news/777922/london-guant-namo-campaign-protests-outside-us-embassy

If you have not yet added your name to the open letter to President Obama about Shaker Aamer, please do: http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.com/2011/03/sign-our-open-letter-to-president-obama.html

Human Rights NGOs, victims and their solicitors withdraw from the Detainee Inquiry

Following the publication of the terms of reference and protocol for the handling of information in the forthcoming Detainee (Gibson) Inquiry, on 4 August, letters were sent by 10 human rights NGOs and lawyers representing victims whose cases it will consider, stating that they are withdrawing from the inquiry and that they will henceforth not cooperate with it.

A letter was sent by 10 human rights NGOs stating that they would not be able to cooperate with the inquiry due to its lack of transparency and credibility. http://reprieve.org.uk/static/downloads/2011_08_03_PUB_NGO_withdrawal_from_Detainee_Inquiry_letter.pdf
In particular, they cited the use of secrecy and ineffective means for victims to question the security services and the failure to question foreign intelligence agents as a disappointment:
“Plainly an Inquiry conducted in the way that you describe and in accordance with the Protocol would not comply with Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. We are particularly disappointed that the issue of what material may be disclosed to the public will not be determined independently of Government and, further, that there will be no meaningful participation of the former and current detainees and other interested third parties.”
These groups have previously criticised the scope and proposed proceedings of the Inquiry.

Lawyers, including leading human rights solicitors Louise Christian, Gareth Peirce, Irène Nembhard and Tayab Ali, who represent some of the victims, also wrote to the Inquiry:
“We consider it impossible to advise those whom we represent that the structure and protocols now confirmed for the Gibson inquiry can achieve what are essential ingredients for a public inquiry into grave state crimes. What is proposed is a 'Detainee Inquiry' in which there will be no constructive participation by the detainees. The detainees will not be able to ask questions or see or hear the key evidence which is to be considered only in secret session. They will not even know if the individuals being questioned are the right ones." (Source: BBC)

The Detainee (Gibson) Inquiry is intended to look into over a dozen cases of the involvement of British intelligence services (MI5 and MI6) in the torture and abuse of British and foreign nationals abroad since 2001. These include allegations related to abuse in Guantánamo Bay, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere. Torture is banned absolutely under international law; there can be no exceptions. In spite of various allegations to the contrary, that the British government and its agents do not collude in torture, such evidence and claims have come to the surface time and again over the past few years, and have been proved in some cases, such as that of Binyam Mohamed. The allegations are of gross human rights violations and cannot be treated lightly. Both the alleged misconduct of the security services and the inquiry will be at the expense of the British taxpayer. However, the involvement of a British government, which claims to have human rights “as an indivisible part of our foreign policy”, in such extra-legal and illegal activity, and the extent to which it will go to conceal such involvement has far wider repercussions with the mission creep of secrecy into the domestic legal system. This was clearly shown in the Supreme Court ruling against the security services using closed hearings and secret evidence in a civil claim brought by former Guantánamo prisoners against MI5 and MI6: http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2011/jul/13/supreme-court-secret-evidence-ban Criticised from the outset for its lack of transparency, effectiveness, limit scope, use of closed hearings and other matters, the fact that the government has chosen the Intelligence Services Commissioner, Sir Peter Gibson, whose job it is to oversee the work of British intelligence, to chair an inquiry into the intelligence and security services also undermines the transparency of this inquiry.

The Inquiry has responded to these criticisms on its website: http://www.detaineeinquiry.org.uk/2011/08/statement-by-the-inquiry/
It states that the inquiry will go ahead nonetheless.

Press releases from NGOs on this news:
Reprieve: http://reprieve.org.uk/press/2011_08_04_withdrawal_from_inquiry/
Amnesty UK: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/uploads/documents/doc_21713.pdf

Media reports on this news:
BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14397601
Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/torture-investigation-has-no-credibility-2331607.html
Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2011/aug/04/human-rights-boycott-gibson-torture-inquiry

LGC Newsletter - July 2011

LGC Newsletter – July 2011

NEWS:

Guantánamo Bay:
Former prisoner, Adel Al-Gazzar, who was arrested and detained promptly on his return to his native Egypt last month, has appealed the charges he was convicted of in absentia in 2002 when he was being held at Guantánamo Bay. It is on the basis of these charges and conviction that he is currently being held. He was not aware of the trial at the time. He is seeking a fair trial, however military prosecutors have rejected his appeal and he remains in detention.
http://reprieve.org.uk/press/2011_07_21_Adel_Al_Gazzar_calls_for_re_trial/

Extraordinary rendition:
At the end of June, the US attorney general Eric Holder announced that he would hold criminal investigations into the deaths of two CIA prisoners held in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2002-2003. He also agreed to an investigation into the treatment of prisoners however ruled out any investigations into the deaths of a further 101 prisoners in CIA custody since 2001. The Obama administration has said that it does not intend to prosecute anyone named through the investigations who acted on legal guidance, which authorised the use of waterboarding among other torture techniques, available at the time. The two prisoners whose cases will be investigated are Gul Rahman, who died in a CIA prison in Afghanistan in November 2002 after being chained to a cold cement wall and Manadel Al-Jamadi who died in Abu Ghraib in Iraq in 2003.
More on this news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13984912
Amnesty International UK made the following comment on the US’ failure to investigate its use of torture: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=19555

In a new twist on extraordinary rendition, a Somali national appeared before a civilian court in New York in early July on charges of assisting terrorist groups. Pleading not guilty to nine charges, it emerged that Ahmed Abdulkader Warsame, in his mid-20s, was picked up in waters off the Somalia coast on 19 April this year and was held secretly on a US warship and interrogated daily by the CIA for two months before being interrogated again in a manner which could be used as evidence in court by the FBI and then taken to the US and charged. He is alleged not to have been read his legal rights before being questioned. Interrogations are also alleged to have been conducted in line with the Geneva Conventions. This is the first time that a foreign terrorism suspect has been taken to the US; in the past, individuals subject to such interrogations have been taken to Guantánamo Bay. Various politicians in the US have called for him to be tried by a military tribunal at Guantánamo, however a civilian trial is scheduled for early September, just days before the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
Failing to notice the secret and potentially illegal nature of Mr Warsame’s detention, the media have stated that this arrest, interrogation and forthcoming trial are an indication of how the Obama administration will deal with terrorism suspects. However, the US has been accused of questioning and torturing rendition victims and “ghost prisoners” on board US military ships in the past, in particular around the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
The American Civil Liberties Union has condemned Mr Warsame’s detention and interrogation aboard the warship: http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/u.s.-may-have-violated-domestic-and-international-law-capturing-and-holding-somali-months-sea
His charges can be read at: http://documents.latimes.com/ahmed-warsame-indictment/
More on this news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14041734

On 6 July, one year to the day that David Cameron announced an inquiry would be held into the British intelligence services’ involvement in torture abroad, the terms of reference and protocols on the treatment of information in the inquiry were published. The Detainee, or Gibson, Inquiry, led by retired judge Sir Peter Gibson is due to start its proceedings later this year. Already subject to much criticism of its narrow scope and failure to consider the issue thoroughly, the terms of reference and protocols have also been criticised, concerning how information will be obtained, how and what information will be kept confidential and the scope of the inquiry to include prisoner transfers. NGOs and other critics feel that as stated the inquiry will be powerless and ineffective in dealing with this crucial issue. The inquiry can be followed on its website: http://www.detaineeinquiry.org.uk/

On 13 July, the Supreme Court ruled that the security services (MI5 and MI6) could not rely on secret evidence procedures in court to conceal evidence of involvement in the torture of detainees. In a case brought by several former Guantánamo prisoners, which ended in an out-of-court settlement in November last year, the procedural issue of whether the security services could rely on closed evidence (withheld from the detainees, their lawyers and the public) in the case, in the interest of national security, was referred to the Supreme Court where the judges held that such use would breach the common law standards of a fair trial. However, the judges warned that parliament could in future legislate to allow the use of secret evidence as it has in other sensitive proceedings. The government is currently seeking to table a green paper, which could become law, on the use of intelligence in court proceedings, which could effectively end any disclosure of evidence, such as that related to what the government and its officials and agents know about the use of torture or their own involvement in it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2011/jul/13/supreme-court-secret-evidence-ban

LGC Activities:
To mark American Independence Day, a special prisoner solidarity demonstration was held instead of the monthly Shut Down Guantánamo! demonstration. Around 25 people attended and were joined by activists from other campaigns, including the Justice For Aafia Coalition, Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! and the UK Friends of Bradley Manning. For a report on this event: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/07/481978.html
This month’s demonstration will be on Friday 5 August at 12-1pm outside the US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, London W1A 1AE and then 1.15-2.15pm outside Speaker’s Corner (Marble Arch) http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=184595608269352