UN experts call on US president in his final week in office to free Abu Zubaydah, who was detained 23 years ago in the aftermath of 9/11

A panel of UN experts and a group of 100 legal and human rights scholars have written to the president appealing to him to pardon the 53-year-old prisoner, the first 9/11 detainee to be tortured at the CIA global network of secret prisons.

“His immediate release and relocation to a third safe country are long overdue,” a group of 12 UN special rapporteurs on arbitrary detention, forced disappearances and other human issues, wrote in their letter to the outgoing president.

“Mr Abu Zubaydah suffers serious health conditions, including from injuries sustained during torture that are allegedly exacerbated by the denial of medical attention. In addition, lawyer-client communication has been seriously impeded,” they said.

  • elfin8er@lemmy.world
    53·
    2 days ago

    he was subjected to physical abuse until he “didn’t know who he was any more”.

    He was initially described by the US as one of al-Qaida’s top leaders, but later US intelligence assessments conceded he probably knew nothing of the 9/11 attacks and may not even have been a member of al-Qaida.

    • credo@lemmy.world
      25·
      2 days ago

      Well. I bet he will be now. Better keep him then.

      /s

      Btw, didn’t Biden’s former boss try to close GITMO?

      Executive Order 13492, titled Review and Disposition of Individuals Detained at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base and Closure of Detention Facilities, is an Executive Order that was signed by United States President Barack Obama on 22 January 2009, ordering the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.

      We couldn’t get this done in the last four years either?

        • MirthfulAlembic@lemmy.worldEnglish
          11·
          1 day ago

          I think the problem Obama ran into that still exists is to close Gitmo, the remaining prisoners have to go somewhere, and nobody will take some of them. DoD announced very recently a large portion are going to Oman, so this is still in process it seems.

          The obvious lesson to learn is it’s a bad idea to extrajudicially detain and torture enemy combatants that don’t fight for a particular government. Or in my opinion don’t do that even if they do belong to a government willing to take them back.