Guantánamo
Bay
Pre-trial
hearings continued in the case of prisoners accused of involvement in the
September 2001 attacks in New York City. The number of defendants has fallen
from five to four after a judge found that Saudi prisoner Ramzi bin al-Shibh is
unfit for trial, “after a military medical panel found that sustained abuse had
rendered him lastingly psychotic”. He remains in detention but only his
co-defendants remain on trial.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/22/cia-abuse-rendered-9-11-defendant-unfit-for-trial-us-military
Ahead
of the hearings resuming, in ongoing plea bargaining between the prosecutors
and lawyers for the defendants, the Biden administration rejected a set of
proposed conditions for the plea deal made by the men, which would include
medical care for physical and mental trauma afflicted during their time in CIA
custody and no solitary confinement. In March 2022, prosecutors offered a deal
to avoid the death penalty in the case if the defendants pleaded guilty to
their alleged roles in the attacks. However, Biden’s decision to reject these
conditions could make such a deal harder to reach. The US administration has
generally not engaged with the plea bargain proposed, leaving the matter to
prosecutors and the defence to decide on. Some families of the deceased would
like to see a trial for the five accused men rather than a plea bargain.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/06/us/sept-11-trial-plea-biden-guantanamo.html
On
15 September, a group of UN experts issued a statement warning against the
expulsion of former Russian prisoner Ravil Mingazov from the UAE, where he was
resettled but not released in 2017, to Russia, where he would be at risk if
repatriated against his will. The experts called for his immediate release: “We
call on the Governments involved to observe their international obligations,
honour the diplomatic assurances provided for resettlement, and take into
account the substantiated risks to Mr. Mingazov’s physical and moral integrity,
if repatriated against his will.”
“Mr.
Mingazov is a victim of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment during and
prior to his detention at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba and was arbitrarily detained by
the United States for nearly 15 years. Given these past violations and his
extended and indefinite arbitrary detention at an undisclosed location in the
UAE, he remains profoundly vulnerable to further serious violations of his
human rights.”
“The
United States is obliged to continue to ensure Mr. Mingazov’s rights are being
respected, including through his release in line with the terms of the
diplomatic assurances, and reparation and remedy for serious violations of
international law, including extraordinary rendition, torture, and other cruel,
inhuman and degrading treatment and arbitrary detention experienced while in
the custody of the US Government. As a victim of torture, Mr. Mingazov has
rights that do not end with his transfer to another country.”
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/09/uae-and-usa-un-experts-warn-against-refoulement-ex-guantanamo-detainee-and
The case of two Malaysians and an Indonesian prisoner
accused of involvement in the 2002 Bali bombing has been severed, with one
Malaysian prisoner, Mohammed Farik Bin Amin, no longer being tried with the
other two defendants in the case, which suggests that a plea deal may be
pending and/or that Bin Amin may testify against his co-defendants. “Late in
the Obama administration, the government nearly struck a plea deal with Mr. Bin
Amin in which he would have been repatriated to Malaysia to serve out most of
his sentence. But the deal collapsed amid concerns that he would not remain
imprisoned for the full term, in part because Malaysia might not recognize the
tribunals system as legitimate. A conviction of Mr. Bin Amin through a guilty
plea would fit a strategy at the military commissions system of trying to use
that approach to resolve charges against detainees formerly held at secret
C.I.A. prisons known as black sites. Such cases are complicated by the fact
that the agency tortured the prisoners before transferring them to military
custody, and by the heavy presence of classified information.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/01/us/politics/guantanamo-bali-bombing.html
In
addition, the Malaysian Home Minister reported having met the US special
representative for Guantanamo affairs, Tina Kaidanow, during a trip to the US
to discuss the release and repatriation of the two Malaysian prisoners, in
whose case a 2025 trial start date has been proposed. He confirmed that the
Malaysian government is seeking to have the two men returned to the country.
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/kl-pushing-to-get-two-malaysians-released-from-guantanamo-bay-home-minister