Saturday, January 11, 2014
Friday, January 10, 2014
MEDIA RELEASE: London Activists to Mark Twelfth Anniversary of Guantánamo Bay with demonstration in Trafalgar Square, Saturday 11 January, 2-4pm
Activists wearing orange jumpsuits and black hoods will hold up placards
in Trafalgar Square, outside the National Gallery, to mark the 12th
anniversary of the opening of the Guantánamo Bay prison camp, and
demand its closure.
The London Guantánamo Campaign [1] will host the
demonstration, and speakers will include Jeremy Corbyn MP, Sarah Ludford MEP and Louise
Christian, solicitor for former Guantánamo prisoners [2].
Aisha Maniar, a spokesperson for the London Guantánamo Campaign,
says, "Twelve years on, the prison at Guantánamo Bay remains a stain on
the current global landscape. It is unfortunate that it has taken a near-fatal
hunger strike by prisoners to remind the world, and Barack Obama, of his
promise to close the facility. While
a step in the right direction, recently renewed efforts by the US
administration to reduce the number of prisoners and close the facility remain half-hearted.
“Where there is no risk to their safety, President
Obama must ensure that prisoners cleared for release are
repatriated immediately. In addition, periodic reviews of prisoners must
be accelerated to ensure any further releases. Other states must step
up their efforts by demanding the
repatriation of their nationals and residents.
“The British government can lead the way by using this anniversary to renew its demands
for the return of hunger-striking British resident Shaker Aamer to his family
in London. The time to act is now. There must be no more anniversaries.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. The London Guantánamo Campaign was set up in 2006 and campaigns for
justice for all prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, for the closure of this and other
secret prisons, and an end to the practice of extraordinary rendition. http://
2. More details and list of speakers available on the London Guantánamo
Campaign website: http://
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
LGC Newsletter – December 2013
NEWS:
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.
Guantánamo Bay:
 |
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.
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.
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.
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.
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”.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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/
Friday, November 29, 2013
LGC Newsletter – November 2013
NEWS:
British Residents:
 |
| LGC monthly demo, 7 November |
Shaker Aamer’s wife, father-in-law and daughter met with Foreign
Secretary William Hague in early November to discuss progress on efforts to
release him to the UK. Mr Hague wrote to Shaker Aamer last month; he has
received the letter and replied. His MP Jane Ellison has also recently met
American ambassador Matthew Barzun to discuss cooperation on his case.
On 17 November, CBS TV show 60 Minutes showed interviews and
footage of Guantánamo Bay http://www.cbsnews.com/news/life-at-gitmo/
which included Shaker Aamer shouting out to reporters: “Please we are tired. Either you leave us to die in peace or either
tell the world the truth. Open up the place, let the world come and visit!” He also added: “You
cannot walk even half a metre without being chained. Is that a human being? That's
the treatment of an animal.”
 |
| rally for Shaker Aamer |
The Save Shaker Aamer Campaign held a march and rally for Shaker Aamer
to mark 12 years of his detention in Battersea on 23 November. Several dozen
people joined the march and the rally was well attended, with speakers
including politicians John McDonnell MP, MEP Jean Lambert and a representative
from Jane Ellison MP’s office, journalists Victoria Brittain and Andy
Worthington, and organisations such as the CND and STWC. Aisha Maniar from the
LGC addressed the rally, singling out the media for its failure to report on
Shaker Aamer’s case or what happens at Guantánamo Bay, and its partial and
inaccurate reporting when it does. The rally was poorly attended by mainstream
media, who are largely responsible for the fact that few people know about
Shaker Aamer’s plight and that of the other 163 prisoners.
Media from the day:
Guantánamo Bay:
Although the US military officially declared
the mass hunger strike at Guantánamo Bay to have ended in September, having
fallen to 11 prisoners on hunger strike and being force fed at the beginning of
this month, that number has recently started to rise again to 15, all of whom
are being force fed, according to the Miami Herald newspaper, which has
been tracking the hunger strike:
A new report, Ethics Abandoned, published
on 4 November by a 20-person independent panel of health experts accused
doctors and psychologists working in the US military and CIA detention centres
of having “violated standard ethical principles and
medical standards to avoid infliction of harm. The Task Force on Preserving
Medical Professionalism in National Security Detention Centers (see attached)
concludes that since September 11, 2001, the Department of Defense (DoD) and
CIA improperly demanded that U.S. military and intelligence agency health
professionals collaborate in intelligence gathering and security practices in a
way that inflicted severe harm on detainees in U.S. custody.”
The report lists practices that include the “designing, participating in, and enabling torture and cruel,
inhumane and degrading treatment”
of prisoners, and recommends that medical practitioners follow professional
codes of ethics and that their professional and governing bodies strengthen
their commitment to such ethics.
Former prisoners Australian David Hicks and
Canadian Omar Khadr, who were both convicted by a military tribunal, have
formally started proceedings to appeal their convictions in the US courts. David
Hicks was held at Guantánamo Bay for 5 years and was convicted on material
support charges, which last year a US federal appeals court found to be a
retroactive application of a law that did not exist at the time, in the
successful appeal filed by former Bin Laden driver, Salim Hamdan.
Omar Khadr, the only person since World War II
to have been convicted before a war crimes tribunal for offences committed as a
minor, was held in Guantánamo Bay for almost 10 years, before being released to
Canada in September 2012, where he is serving the rest of his sentence. Hicks
too was detained upon his return to Australia and the governments of both
Commonwealth countries were complicit in the prolonged ordeal of their citizens
at Guantánamo Bay. Both men argue that a plea bargain was their only way out of
Guantánamo Bay. Hicks has argued that he entered an “Alford plea” whereby, in
US law, he pleaded guilty to an offence in a criminal court but he did not admit
the act and asserts his innocence. David Hicks spoke about his case and the
lasting impact of Guantánamo to Australian TV:
Although in Hicks’ case, the court has allowed
the case fully, Khadr’s case could drag on for much longer as the court has
asked first for consideration of whether or not the case can even be brought,
given that part of the plea bargain was that he would not appeal the secret
deal. Although Hicks’ case involved a similar clause, his lawyers claim it was
not binding.
As well as launching this US appeal, Omar Khadr
has launched an appeal in the Canadian courts against the decision not to
transfer him to a federal prison. He has been held in maximum security
facilities since his return to the country. His lawyer, Dennis Edney, is appealing
on the basis that the judge ““erred in his
interpretation” of International Transfer of Offenders Act when he denied
Khadr’s request to be transferred to a provincial jail”. Khadr’s lawyers argue that his detention is
illegal as he committed the offences as a minor and his detention should be
considered on that basis.
Award-winning jazz musician, composer and
singer Esperanza Spalding has released a new music video “We Are America” in
response to the ongoing abuse of prisoners and the hunger strike at Guantánamo
Bay. In the video, she is joined by fellow musicians Stevie Wonder, Janelle
Morae and Harry Belafonte. You can hear her catchy message for justice and
freedom here, and read an interview in which she explains why she recorded the
track: https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/watch-esperanza-spalding-protests-guantanamo-injustice-new-music-video
Some political progress has been made on
closing Guantánamo this month with the recently appointed envoys for the
closure of Guantánamo Clifford Sloan and Paul Lewis visiting the facility and
on 25 November, the US Senate passed amendments to the military authorisation
bill that would make it easier for Barack Obama to transfer prisoners to the US
and abroad.
Following years of similar reports, it has now
been admitted that the CIA ran a secret prison within Guantánamo called “Penny
Lane”, after the Beatles’ song, which served as a facility to turn prisoners
into double agents working for the CIA after early release.
Extraordinary Rendition
The African Commission of Human Rights heard its
first court case concerning extraordinary rendition on 1 November. Sitting in
Gambia, and hearing a case brought before the court against Djibouti by a
Yemeni national, 49-year old businessman Mohammed Abdullah Saleh al-Asad, who
was kidnapped in Tanzania (where he resided) in 2003, “rendered” and tortured
by CIA interrogators in Djibouti and Afghanistan, before being returned to
Yemen in 2005 after the CIA realised he has no connections to terrorism. The
Yemeni authorities continued to hold him until mid-2006.
Similar to the
cases of Abu Zubaydah and Abd Al-Nashiri, both currently facing trial and
potentially the death penalty at Guantánamo Bay, against Poland for torture and
facilitating rendition, which will be heard on 3 December by the European Court
of Human Rights (ECtHR), such courts offer the only avenue for victims to seek
redress. Such actions would be impossible against the US directly, in view of
the “state secrets doctrine”, which would block any case being brought.
Instead, victims are resorting to courts with broader jurisdictions to make
claims against states that colluded with the US. States such as Poland have
repeated refused to and/or failed to investigate their own collusion in crimes
against humanity. An application by Poland in October to have parts of the
cases heard in closed, secret session was turned down by the ECtHR. However, “the
court will hold an additional hearing, behind closed doors, a day earlier, the
spokeswoman said, adding that the proceedings of that hearing "are
confidential, and no public statement will be made about their nature or
content."”
LGC Activities:
The November monthly
“Shut Down Guantánamo!” demonstration was held on 7 November. Seven people
joined the protest. The December demonstration will be at 12-1pm outside the US
Embassy and 1.15-2.15pm outside Speaker’s Corner, opposite Marble Arch, Hyde
Park, on Thursday 5 December: https://www.facebook.com/events/268246853323758/
On 12 November, Dan Viesnik from the LGC
contributed to an Islam Channel programme, “Analysis” on medical ethics and
torture in US military detention facilities, alongside Polly Rossdale from
Reprieve and Makbool Javaid from Cageprisoners:
 | |
| Cakes donated to LGC by a supporter |
 |
| Cakes donated to LGC by a supporter |
At the rally for Shaker Aamer on 23 November,
at the LGC stall,
supporters of our campaign made and donated cakes for sale, as well as some
artworks, which helped us to raise around £100 for our campaign. The LGC is a
self-funded organisation and any donations – of funds/time – to our completely
voluntary work are much appreciated.
The LGC has now announced details of its
demonstration to mark 12 years of the opening of Guantánamo Bay on Saturday 11
January:
https://www.facebook.com/events/246710665485484/Thursday, October 31, 2013
LGC Newsletter – October 2013
NEWS:
British Residents:
An appeal case, involving British residents Shaker Aamer and Ahmed
Belbacha, was heard on 18 October against the use of force feeding of hunger
strikers at Guantánamo Bay. They, and a third prisoner, argued that the procedure is "inhumane, degrading and a violation of medical
ethics”, as well as being illegal. The Department of Defense has also reported
that the two men are no longer on hunger strike. Fourteen other prisoners are
reported to still be on hunger strike.
Guantánamo Bay:
Ali Hamza Al Bahlul, a Yemeni prisoner
convicted with a life sentence by a Guantánamo military tribunal in November
2008 for conspiracy, soliciting murder and providing material support for
terrorism, had a retrial of his case, after his conviction was overturned on
appeal in January 2013. The one day hearing of legal arguments on 30 September
saw some of the previous arguments concerning whether conspiracy and material
support for terrorism are war crimes expanded. It is likely that even if
the US government wins the case in the retrial, the case will go to the Supreme
Court where Al Bahlul may succeed in having his conviction overturned once and
for all. The outcome of his case will have serious consequences for the ongoing
9/11 trial at Guantánamo and appeals by other prisoners who have been
convicted.
The US government has dropped its objection to
a habeas corpus plea and a judge has ordered that Sudanese prisoner Ibrahim Idris
be released. Idris, who is schizophrenic, was diagnosed with mental illness
shortly after his arrival at Guantánamo Bay. This has not prevented the US from
holding him without charge or trial for nearly 12 years. The US government
finally conceded that “he is far too sick” to continue being held at Guantánamo.
He also suffers from various other illnesses and has spent most of his time
there in the psychiatric ward.
On 7 October, following recent positive measures
by the Kuwait government, including a meeting between the Emir of Kuwait and
Barack Obama on the two remaining Kuwaitis in Guantánamo Bay, Fawzi Al-Odah and
Fayiz Al-Kandari, the two men
have decided to withdraw a lawsuit in Kuwait to sue the government there for
failing to take action on their behalf. The Kuwaiti government has recently
made the release of these two men, held without charge or trial, a priority.
Paul M Lewis, a senior White House lawyer, was
appointed a special envoy for Guantanamo Bay closure at
the Pentagon on 8 October, a position he assumes from 1 November. He will work
alongside Clifford Sloan, his counterpart at the State Department on this issue
and the transfer of prisoners held in Afghanistan. In spite of new promises
made by Barack Obama earlier this year, progress has been slow on releasing
prisoners and reviewing their cases. www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/8/hagel-appoints-envoy-closing-guantanamo-bay/
On 9 October, the Department of Defense announced that it was
relaunching its periodic review of the cases of prisoners held at Guantánamo
Bay http://www.lawfareblog.com/2013/10/relaunch-of-the-gtmo-periodic-review-boards/
Following a hearing last month, an Edmonton
judge has ruled against the transfer of Omar Khadr to a provincial jail. He is
currently being held at a maximum security prison, and will not have the
opportunity for parole, even though he would otherwise have been eligible in
March. Lawyers for Khadr had argued that he was illegally being held as an
adult for offences committed as a minor. In a clearly political ruling, the
judge said that his decision was not about “a number of matters” that included
a conviction before a military tribunal whose judgments even the US federal
courts do not agree with and a conviction obtained through the use of torture.
In the ongoing 9/11 case at Guantánamo Bay, in
which pre-trial hearings resumed on 21 October, issues about the use of torture
in procuring evidence were raised. One of the defendants claims he suffers
ongoing pain and illness as a result of the torture he was subjected to. Other issues
related to torture were also raised. Lawyers for the men are also seeking the
declassification of CIA documents and records concerning their clients, without
which they claim they cannot mount an effective defence. Earlier in the month,
the judge said that he would not allow technological issues to set back the
trial. The next pre-trial hearing in the case of Abd Al-Nashiri has been set
back to December, although it should have been held in early November.
The appeal against the conviction of former Guantánamo prisoner,
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, the only prisoner to be tried before a civil court in
New York, for his involvement in the bombing of two US Embassies in east Africa
in 1998, was dismissed. He was convicted in 2010, and was held in secret prisons where he was
tortured before arriving at Guantánamo in 2006. He claimed that the delay in
bringing him to trial and the conditions of his detention prior to trial denied
him the right to a speedy trial. His lawyer has said he will appeal to the
Supreme Court.
The Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Qirbi
has reported that Yemen is planning to build a rehabilitation centre for any
prisoners returned from Guantánamo Bay and laid the blame for delays in the
return of prisoners on the US and what it expected for prisoners to be returned
home.
The Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights has demanded to know what measures the US has taken
to address the demands of prisoners on hunger strike at Guantánamo Bay, and has
found the response to be a “systematic violation of human rights”. The
Commission has not been able to meet prisoners but is hoping to investigate further
why the US government has failed to take action to close Guantánamo. It condemned
the force feeding of prisoners as cruel and inhumane treatment.
Extraordinary Rendition
Having been asked last month to reopen its investigations into torture
prisons run for the CIA, particularly in respect to the torture faced by
Mustafa Al-Hawsawi, one of the current defendants in the 9/11 case before the
Guantánamo military tribunal, the Lithuanian authorities have again refused to
investigate allegations of torture, in spite of new evidence having come to
light, claiming that “that they [human rights NGOs] had
failed to “prove” that al-Hawsawi was transported to Lithuania between 2004 and
2006, and illegally detained and tortured there”, even though it is the public
prosecutor’s job to do that. The rejection letter from the public prosecutor
was dated just one day after a meeting with European human rights NGOs on the
matter.
Demonstrating that the US practice of extraordinary rendition is still
very much alive and operational, on 5 October, an alleged Al Qaeda operative
known as Abu Anas Al Libi was kidnapped in broad daylight in Tripoli by US army
forces with the assistance of the FBI and the CIA. Operating outside of the law
when kidnapping a foreign national in a foreign state, although the Libyan government denies any knowledge of and has not disputed this breach of its sovereignty, he
was then held on board a US warship, the USS San Antonio, in the Mediterranean
Sea. Having “disappeared” briefly during this time, he may well have been
tortured, although no details have emerged of his treatment. He was then
brought to court in New York on 15 October and indicted on charges related to
terrorism, to which he pleaded not guilty. Questions remain unanswered about
the illegal manner in which the US chose to proceed. Britain may well have a
role to play in the matter after it emerged that Al-Libi was given asylum in
the UK, even though he has been on the US’ “10 most wanted” list since 2001. The
kidnapping in Libya was parallel to a failed similar operation in Somalia.
The European Parliament has again, in a new resolution, called on member
states to end impunity for involvement in the CIA’s extraordinary rendition
programme. MEPs stated that they were “highly disappointed” by the lack of
response by states to a resolution last year demanding that states take action.
The EU Parliament wants its own powers to investigate to be reinforced and “The resolution makes specific calls on Lithuania, Romania, Poland,
the UK, Italy, Finland, France, Sweden, Belgium, Greece, Ireland, Latvia and
Slovakia. For example, it asks the UK authorities to establish a
"human-rights-compliant inquiry" into the rendition, torture and
ill-treatment of detainees abroad.”
Following Poland’s failure to make progress in the investigation of
torture and torture facilities in the country, two cases have been referred to
the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg by current Guantánamo
prisoners Abu Zubaydah and Abd Al-Nashiri, both currently facing trial at Guantánamo.
The court, demonstrating to its members how speedily justice should be
administered, will hear the cases on 2-3 December. Poland, however, has asked
for the trial to be heard in secret to protect its interests.
At the end of this month, Poland granted “injured person” status to a
third prisoner who was held at a secret CIA-run prison there, Walid Bin Attash,
who is currently held at Guantánamo Bay. This is a positive step as “Under Polish law an “injured person” may review files as well as
make a complaint concerning refusal to disclose documents. He has also the
right to challenge delays in the proceedings.”
On 21 October, a case was heard at the High Court in London concerning
the British government’s involvement in the rendition in 2004 from Malaysia to
Libya of Libyan politician Abdel Hakim Belhadj and his wife Fatima Bouchar, who
was pregnant at the time. The British government argued that the case should be
thrown out as it could damage US-UK relations and may seek to have parts of the
case heard in secret under the Justice and Security Act 2013, which would
exclude both Belhadj and the public from knowing those parts of the case.
Allegations made by Belhadj and his family were confirmed after documents demonstrating
MI6’s direct involvement were found in Tripoli following the fall of the
Gaddafi regime.
LGC Activities:
The October monthly
“Shut Down Guantánamo!” demonstration was held on 3 October. Three people
joined the protest which coincided with National Poetry Day and poems were read
out by Val Brown, Dan Viesnik and Noel Hamel by the Shaker Aamer, his children,
and Talha Ahsan.
The November
demonstration will be at 12-1pm outside the US Embassy and 1.15-2.15pm outside
Speaker’s Corner, opposite Marble Arch, Hyde Park, on Thursday 7 November: https://www.facebook.com/events/195115897339394/
The London Guantánamo Campaign contributed to a
conference on the future of Afghanistan after the withdrawal of foreign powers
in 2014. In the afternoon, Aisha Maniar, Val Brown and Noel Hamel from the LGC
held two workshops on torture prisons and extraordinary rendition relating to
Afghanistan and beyond which were well attended and at which a good discussion
was held on the issues involved.
The International Rehabilitation Council for
Torture Victims (IRCT) has published its annual report of actions across the
globe to mark International Day in Support of Victims of Torture on 26 June.
Please turn to page 29 of the report to see our contribution in London:
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