Guantanamo Inmates to Get US Court Hearing to Demand Trial or Release

By Julian Borger, Guardian UK

10 July 18

Habeas corpus petition to be presented at Washington district court on Wednesday

leven inmates held at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp without charge for as long as 15 years will have a rare hearing in a US court on Wednesday when they submit a petition demanding they be tried or released.

The habeas corpus petition will be presented at the Washington district court. However, the inmates will not be allowed to listen to oral arguments at their own hearing, as the Guantanamo administration said there were no single room at the camp where they could all be put in restraints while listening to a live feed.

The court accepted the absence of a room big enough for all the petitioners to be shackled to the floor as a valid reason for them not to hear a direct broadcast of their hearing, and that a recording or transcript at a later date was an adequate substitute.

One of the inmates behind the petition is Towfiq Bihani, a Saudi-born Yemeni who was arrested in Iran in 2002, where he had fled bombing in Afghanistan. He was flown back to Afghanistan and ultimately transferred to the US authorities. According to his lawyers, he was handed over for a price, at a time when bounties were paid for bearded Arabs caught in the region around Afghanistan.

According to the Senate Intelligence committee, he was taken to a CIA “black site” secret interrogation centre, where he was one of 33 inmates subjected to “enhanced interrogation techniques”, before being flown to Guantanamo Bay, a US enclave on the south coast of Cuba.

Bihani was cleared of any involvement in terrorism by US intelligence agencies in January 2010 and given his release papers on three occasions. In 2016 he was even measured for new clothes he was going to wear on being freed, but his release was cancelled at the last minute.

The Trump administration has continued to hold him citing “a variety of substantive concerns relevant to [his] circumstances, including factors not related to [Bihani] himself.”

“What good is having a court case when there is no hope of justice?” Bihani asked, according to a quote provided by his legal team. “I am still sitting here. Hearing about my court case just gets my hopes up, and my emotions go up and down like a see-saw. I’m happier without the meetings.”

Shelby Sullivan-Bennis of Reprieve, an advocacy group providing legal representation for Bihani and six other Guantanamo detainees, said: “This latest affront to fairness and justice should shock every American, but sadly it doesn’t surprise us.”

“None of the men Reprieve represents has ever been charged with a crime, and two have been cleared for transfer, but they remain stuck in Guantanamo, apparently indefinitely,” Sullivan-Bennis said. “That the US government now claims they can’t safely be chained to the floor, to hear their own lawyers argue that they should be tried or released, is the latest sick twist in a shameful saga with no end in sight.”

Barack Obama sought to close down the Guantanamo camp, and transferred many of its prisoners but failed to clear it out entirely in the face of congressional resistance and difficulties in finding countries willing to accept detainees. There are now 40 detainees left. Donald Trump announced a new policy towards Guantanamo in January, keeping it open for potentially for “many cases” of terrorist suspects. However, no new captives have been transferred to the camp.

Since the camp was opened in 2002, a total of 780 prisoners have been held there at an estimated cost of $6 bn. Only three inmates were convicted there, while a fourth was transferred to the US mainland and convicted in a federal court. According to Reprieve, every day Bihani spends in Guantanamo costs the US $29,000. Altogether, it has cost more than $170m to keep him in the camp without charge.

Bihani has passed his 15 years on Guantanamo writing poetry and has more recently began painting in acrylics. He watches wildlife documentaries, plays football and is following the World Cup, his lawyers said. He comes a family of 12 siblings, and his mother died during his incarceration.

“I am able to see the ocean here,” Bihani said. “When I feel upset, seeing the ocean helps me go into a trance and deal with my emotions. I have not lost hope, but I got used to the rhythm here. It is the first place I have lived for this long. Before, at home, I was always moving.”