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A United Nations human rights panel has issued a damning report blaming the United States and seven other nations for the CIA’s “torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” of a Saudi prisoner now awaiting trial for punishment. of death in Guantanamo Bay.
He UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention It also named the United Arab Emirates, where the prisoner, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, was captured in 2002, and Afghanistan, Lithuania, Morocco, Poland, Romania and Thailand, where he was held as part of a rendition and interrogation, as responsible. . program run by the George W. Bush administration.
The task force, which has no law enforcement authority, adopted the 18 page report on November 15, but didn’t release it until this weekend.
The group called for the immediate release and compensation of Mr. Nashiri, who is accused of orchestrating the bombing of the US Navy destroyer Cole off Yemen nearly 23 years ago. He said the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal, which was designed to prosecute only non-US citizens, deprives Nashiri of “fair trial guarantees that would normally apply within the US judicial system.”
Why it matters: Criticism of Guantanamo Bay is on the rise again.
The finding is the latest in a series of UN investigations condemning the past and current treatment of detainees at Guantánamo Bay at a time when lawyers and the International Committee of the Red Cross have protested inadequate medical care. for the last detainees there.
UN agencies are also refocusing attention on the Pentagon prison, which houses 30 prisoners of war against terrorism, including 17 men for whom the Biden administration is seeking countries to offer resettlement.
The report could be presented to a sentencing jury of US military officers in Mr. Nashiri’s case. In October 2021, a military jury in the case of another Guantánamo prisoner who was tortured by the CIA pleaded for leniency, calling the abuse of that prisoner “a stain on the moral fiber of the United States.”
Background: Torture has been at the heart of the Cole case.
US investigations and testimony in the case of Mr. Nashiri show that psychologists working as CIA contractors drowned him, confined him naked in a claustrophobic wooden box, and subjected him to threats and violence, including rectal abuse, by the agency staff.
His military commissions case has been in pre-trial proceedings since 2011. Seventeen US sailors were killed in the Cole suicide bombing in the port of Aden, and prosecutors argue the case can be tried in the court that was set up in response to the attacks of September 11, 2011. 2001, attacks.
Mr. Nashiri’s lawyers describe him as a torture survivor who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and other conditions attributed to untreated physical, psychological and sexual abuse.
What’s next: More pre-trial hearings and countries are asked to respond.
Mr. Nashiri has more hearings this month focused on what evidence can be used in his eventual capital trial. The judge on the case is retiring and a new one is expected to take over this summer.
One of Nashiri’s lawyers, Katie Carmon, said Sunday that if Nashiri were convicted, the latest UN report could be the basis for a legal filing seeking sentencing credit because he was subjected to “pretrial punishment.” as a prisoner of the United States.
The UN panel asked countries to report on the human rights reforms they had adopted and whether they had followed any of its recommendations.