A UN working group has said Ammar al-Baluchi's detention at the US Guantanamo Bay prison violates international human rights law. It comes after US President Donald Trump signed an order to keep the facility open.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/M. Antonov
Advertisement
A United Nations rights group warned the United States on Wednesday that the detention of Ammar al-Baluchi was "arbitrary and breaches international human rights law."
"Mr. al-Baluchi has been subject to prolonged detention on discriminatory grounds and has not been afforded equality of arms in terms of having adequate facilities for the preparation of his defense under the same conditions as the prosecution," a panel for the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said.
The group, which will report its findings to the UN Human Rights Council, called for al-Baluchi's immediate release and right to compensation and reparations, such as physical and psychological rehabilitation.
A sketch of Ammar al-Baluchi, taken during the 2008 trial in Guantanamo against the suspected conspirators behind 9/11Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Linsley
Al-Baluchi, a Kuwaiti-born Pakistani national, was arrested in Karachi in 2003 and has been held at Guantanamo since 2006. The US believes he was a co-conspirator behind the September 11 attacks on New York City. His uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is also being held at Guantanamo, has been accused of being the mastermind behind the attack.
According to the group, al-Baluchi's detention contravenes at least 13 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Tortured
In December, another UN-mandated investigator, Nils Melzer, reported that al-Baluchi was still being tortured at Guantanamo, years after the United States vowed it had banned "enhanced interrogation techniques."
The Pentagon has denied Melzer's findings, saying it failed to provide any credible evidence.
The UN group said on Wednesday that the psychological and physical trauma he had suffered prior to arriving at Guantanamo had made it impossible to give him a fair trial.
"Mr. al-Baluchi has been deprived of due process and the fair trial guarantees that would ordinarily apply within the judicial system of the United States," the UN panel said. "This act of discrimination on the basis of his status as a foreign national and his religion has denied Mr. al-Baluchi equality before the law."
Report says CIA lied about interrogation
01:23
This browser does not support the video element.
Trump doubles down on Guantanamo
The UN working group's findings come a month after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order allowing Guantanamo to remain open and for new prisoners to be sent there.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump said he wanted to "load it up with some bad dudes."
The measure reverses an unfulfilled promise from his predecessor, Barack Obama, to shut Guantanamo. Obama reduced the inmate population to 41 but fell short of his vow to close the facility.
The UN working group had previously voiced its concerns to Washington about the ongoing existence of the prison at Guantanamo Bay. It has also warned that the systematic imprisonment of terror suspects by the US may constitute crimes against humanity.
Art from Guantanamo
Prisoners at Guantanamo Bay don't have many liberties. Painting is one of the few activities they have been allowed to pursue in recent years. An exhibition in New York is showing some of their art works.
Image: Reuters/L. Jackson
'Hands Holding Flowers through Bars' (2016)
Muhammad al-Ansi was born in Yemen and was held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camps for a total of 15 years under extrajudicial detention practices. He alleges that he was tortured during his incarceration, saying that painting helped him cope with the conditions at Guantanamo. Creating landscapes and flowers helped him escape the reality of everyday life at the notorious prison.
Image: Muhammad Ansi, /PRESIDENT’S GALLERY, New York
'Vertigo at Guantanamo'
"Vertigo at Guantanamo" is the title of this watercolor by Pakistani inmate Ammar Al-Baluchi. Al-Baluchi has been held at Guantanamo for more than 10 years, and was held at a series of CIA prisons for more than three years before that. His paintings are a direct response to the conditions he has had to suffer in custody, including allegations of torture.
Image: Ammar Al-Baluchi/PRESIDENT’S GALLERY, New York
'Prison still life'
Ahmed Rabbani is another Pakistani inmate at Guantanamo who was held at a number of CIA detention facilities for two years before his transfer to the notorious prison on the island of Cuba. Like most other detainees there, Rabbani is accused of having links to the 9/11 attacks and is alleged of being a member of al Qaeda. His paintings, however, speak of ideas far removed from terrorism.
Image: Ahmed Rabbani/PRESIDENT’S GALLERY, New York
'Titanic' (2017)
When the detainees at Guantanamo ran out of regular paint they had to improvise with other materials. Khalid Qasim, who is one of 41 prisoners still held at Guantanamo Bay and is alleged of a series of crimes as a "enemy combatant" including training for jihad, used coffee powder and sand to finish this depiction of the Titanic out at sea.
Image: Khalid Qasim,/PRESIDENT’S GALLERY, New York
'Cityscape' (2016)
The sea appears to play a central role in many of the paintings created by Guantanamo detainees. The waves crashing against the bay are can apparently be heard from all prison cells. Abdel Malik Al Rahabi, who was released in 2016 after spending 15 years at Guantanamo, painted this seaside cityscape from memory.
Image: Abdualmalik Abud/PRESIDENT’S GALLERY, New York
'Drowned Syrian Refugee Child' (2016)
Images of the body of drowned Syrian refugee boy Aylan Kurdi went around the world in 2015 and even made it into the prison cells at Guantanamo, after former US President Barack Obama allowed inmates to have access to television in 2008. Yemeni inmate Muhammad al-Ansi, who was transferred to custody in Oman in early 2017, painted this image after hearing of the tragic event.
Image: Muhammad Ansi/PRESIDENT’S GALLERY, New York
President's Gallery, New York
The exhibition "Ode to the Sea: Art from Guantanamo" is open to the public at the "President's Gallery" at New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice, a renowned liberal arts school in Manhattan. The art show has attracted a lot of controversy throughout the US. The 36 art works on display can still be seen until January 26, 2018.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Schmitt-Tegge
Life behind barbed wire
Despite the pledge from former US President Barack Obama to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, the notorious prison facility is still operating. When Obama started his presidency there were 242 inmates at Guantanamo. By the end of 2017, only 41 remained. It is unclear if or when they might be released or transferred to other facilities.
