MOHAMEDOU OULD SLAHI, the Guantánamo Bay detainee whose memoir, Guantánamo Diary, became a bestselling book, will receive a hearing with the prison’s Periodic Review Board this June that could result in his release.
The hearing date, handed down earlier this month, means that Slahi has finally been granted the review he and his lawyers have been seeking for years.
Slahi has been detained in Guantánamo for the past 14 years despite never having been charged with a crime. If he is cleared for transfer by the review board this June, the Department of Defense could release him from prison within 30 days.
Slahi, now 45, was renditioned into U.S custody after being arrested by authorities in his native Mauritania. After being shuttled to prisons in Jordan and Afghanistan, he arrived in Guantánamo in August 2002. As a detainee, he was subjected to years of torture by his American captors, events he wrote about in harrowing personal detail in Guantánamo Diary.
In 2010, a federal judge granted Slahi a writ of habeas corpus and ordered his release, a decision the government successfully appealed. He has remained in legal limbo ever since, but his upcoming PRB hearing could afford him a new chance to leave the prison.
“More than anything, Mohamedou wants to show the board that he poses no threat to the United States and should be allowed to return home to his family where he belongs,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, in a statement announcing the hearing.
Although the government had once characterized Slahi as a major al Qaeda operative, officials involved in his case have since cast doubt on those claims. Former Guantánamo Chief Prosecutor Morris Davis has said that, during a 2007 interagency meeting, the government concluded it had no actual evidence of Slahi’s involvement in terrorism. Another former Guantánamo prosecutor, Stuart Couch, refused to prosecute Slahi’s case after learning that he had been tortured in custody.
Since his rendition and detention at Guantánamo, Slahi’s brother Yahdih Ould Slahi has been a vocal advocate for his imprisoned brother. Speaking to The Intercept from his home in Germany, Yahdih expressed hope that his brother would finally be released from prison. “Our family had great joy to hear that Mohammedou will have a hearing that might release him soon,” Yahdih said. “We’ve had patience for six years after he first was cleared in 2010. The state sold his life cheaply, but we are sure that Mohammedou will convince the court to acquit him because he did not commit any sin.”
Well the thing is the government doesn’t keep you because of sin instead it is crimes. Pretty sure not just random people go there. Not convinced.
……amazing that you would read The Intercept and write such an ignorant comment….
…..actually, many “just random people” have gone there and are still there…so, “the thing is” you really need to expand your mind and read, and read, and read, and read….
….but first, just go and rest….
Hope the book becomes a bestseller.
At long last! It is about time!!!
I am forever disgusted that OUR country, even as it seized the mantle of World’s Terrorist Police (double entendre intended), threw the 800 year old Magna Carta basic human right of habeas corpus – out the window. I lectured my coworkers about this evil breach of the Constitution at a group dinner in 2006 when the first Military Commissions Act was passed, but already years after Guantanamo had been keeping prisoners indefinitely without trial. It’s important to remember your audience when telling folks their government’s doing the unthinkable. From the general reaction nobody there thought the war on terror could ever touch their rights and why should they even care what happens to (those effing) terrorists, anyway. I had to give up discussing it after a few tries, wrong crowd.
And the difference between Guantanamo and the Soviet Gulags is
Come on. I’m sure you’re dying to tell us.
Come on. I’m sure you can’t wait to tell us.
p.s. Sorry for the double posting. First time on here.
In case you hadn’t realized..not much except it’s warmer in Guantanamo.
p.s. Sorry for the double posting. Firt time on here.
Is this also happening under “Trump’s America”?
just curious…
You betcha , just a heluva lot more often.
Trump’s America will make this seem like a walk in the park. You can see what Trump’s America looks like from the angry , foaming at the mouth, hordes , that are flocking to his rallies, thirsting for blood.
They do not know, though, it is their own blood they are thirsting for. Sad.
Walkers !