Amnesty Worldwide welcomed the switch however stated Guantanamo would stay a ‘obvious, longstanding stain’ on human rights within the US.
The USA has transferred 11 Yemeni detainees from its infamous Guantanamo Bay detention centre to Oman after holding them for greater than 20 years with out cost as a part of Washington’s so-called “battle on terror”.
“The USA appreciates the willingness of the federal government of Oman and different companions to assist ongoing US efforts targeted on responsibly decreasing the detainee inhabitants and finally closing the Guantanamo Bay facility,” the US Division of Protection stated in a press release on Monday night.
The US-based Heart for Constitutional Rights (CCR) stated that among the many 11 detainees transferred to Oman this week, was Sharqawi al-Hajj, who had undergone repeated starvation strikes and hospitalisations at Guantanamo to protest his 21 years in jail, which got here after two years of detention and torture by the CIA.
“Our ideas are with Mr Al Hajj as he transitions to the free world after virtually 23 years in captivity. His launch is looking forward to him and for us,” stated Pardiss Kebriaei, a lawyer at CCR who represents al-Hajj.
Simply 15 detainees now stay at Guantanamo, down from a peak of virtually 800 within the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 assaults by al-Qaeda when then-US President George W Bush arrange the Guantanamo jail camp to carry suspects indefinitely and with out cost and disallowing authorized challenges to their detention.
Lots of of largely Muslim males have been seized from dozens of nations as a part of the US’s so-called “battle on terror”, which additionally concerned the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and covert navy operations elsewhere around the globe.
Situations at Guantanamo Bay and the remedy of detainees have lengthy prompted outcries from human rights teams and United Nations consultants who’ve condemned the jail as a website of “unparalleled notoriety”.
Welcoming the discharge of the 11, Amnesty Worldwide stated the “navy detention facility at Guantanamo Bay is a obvious, longstanding stain on the human rights report of the USA”.
Up to now month, US authorities have launched a number of prisoners from Guantanamo, together with Tunisian nationwide Ridah bin Saleh al-Yazidi who had been held on the jail because it opened in 2002 with out ever being charged. Additionally launched was Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu who was arrested in Kenya in 2007, and two Malaysian males who had been held for 18 years with out cost.
Successive US administrations had been referred to as on to shut Guantanamo or, not less than, launch all these detainees by no means charged with a criminal offense. Outgoing President Joe Biden had pledged earlier than his election in 2020 to attempt to shut down Guantanamo, nevertheless it stays in operation simply weeks earlier than he leaves workplace.
Biden administration officers stated they have been engaged on figuring out appropriate international locations keen to take detainees from Guantanamo who have been by no means charged with a criminal offense.
CCR stated that of the 15 males who stay at Guantanamo, six are uncharged and three of these have been cleared for switch from the US.
The Protection Division stated that the 9 different detainees embrace two who’ve been convicted and sentenced, and 7 who’ve been charged in relation to the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole naval ship in addition to the September 11, 2001 assaults and the 2002 bombings on the resort island of Bali.
