Amnesty International Reveals the Turmoil of Former Guantanamo Prisoners

Ten years after the opening of the American detention center, 171 people have been incarcerated. But even for those who leave Guantanamo, the nightmare continues. Two former inmates recount their story for LEXPRESS.fr.

Tuesday morning, at dawn, Amnesty International France activists launched a surprise campaign in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. Overlooking the edge of l’Île de Cygnes was the original model of the Statue of Liberty covered in an orange flag — an act denouncing the continuing maintenance of the American detention center at Guantanamo, ten years after the first transfer of inmates to the prison. For the anniversary, the organization that fights for human rights has issued a report entitled Guantanamo: a Decade of Human Rights Violations, which condemns the treatment of the prisoners at the Guantanamo detention center.

Obama’s Promise Unfulfilled

Since his inauguration in 2009, the president of the United States, Barack Obama, signed an act to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, then scheduled before the end of January 2010. And yet, according to Amnesty International, 171 people were still incarcerated in the prison in mid-December 2011. The prison has seen 779 prisoners since its opening, most prisoners going without charge or trial.

For Geneviève Garrigos, president of Amnesty International France, the possibility of shutdown of Guantanamo is pushed back everyday, notably with the enactment of the National Defense Authorization Act by Barack Obama on December 31, 2011. The law authorizes the indefinite detainment of any person by the U.S. military without trial in the United States or in the world. This has been perpetuated by the concept of the war against terror, introduced by the Bush administration after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2011. In particular, this law concerns those who are already detained in prisons situated within or outside of American territory and cannot be freed and do not have the right to a trial.

While Amnesty welcomes the United States’ decision to put an end to secret unlimited detention programs abroad (“black sites”) previously conducted by the CIA, as well as the removal of enhanced interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, the NGO will continue to call for Guantanmo’s closure and the transfer of detainees to stand in front of federal district courts instead of military commissions that are neither independent nor impartial. For Geneviève Garrigos, the treatment of detainees within Guantanamo walls is actually a political choice.

The organization also calls on the American government to release detainees who have no charge against them and to ensure their access to reparations.

“After Guantanamo, the Nightmare Continues”

During a press conference on Tuesday, Lakhdar Boumediene and Saber Lahmar, two former detainees, testified at Amnesty International’s headquarters in Paris. They recounted their lives since being released from Guantanamo. Lakhdar Boumediene spent more than seven years without charge or trial at the American detention center. Accused of planning an attack on the American Embassy in Sarajevo at the end of 2001, Lakhdar Boumediene was held for several months of preventive detention but was quickly declared innocent by Bosnian justice system. Upon his release in 2002, masked men awaited him: “They covered my eyes with glasses, put plugs in my ears, and a black hood over my head. They gave me an orange jumpsuit and when I opened my eyes four or five days later, I was in Guantanamo,” Lakhdar Boumediene revealed. And there are those who are in the same situation as the former inmate — imprisoned without legal process. Finally released in November 2008 and welcomed by France, Boumediene is the first Guantanamo detainee to have been cleared by a U.S. judge.

Saber Lahmar’s lawyer, Pierre Blazy, who was present at the conference, called attention to the pressure coming from American authorities for European countries to welcome detainees declared innocent on their soil. He questioned the agreements made with France to host former detainees and wishes to clarify the ins and outs of these agreements. After eight years of detention at Guantanamo and a trial by a U.S. federal judge, his client was indeed welcomed by France, but only gained temporary residence for one year. Lahmar has neither a passport nor a native country, as Algeria will not allow him to return to his homeland. Since his release, the former inmate has had no legal representative regarding his detention nor has he received any compensation from the United States. An organization has undertaken the task to find him a home.

Lakhdar Boumediene and Saber Lahmar were arrested and incarcerated at the Guantanamo detention center because “they were at the wrong place at the wrong time” according to the American justice system.

The Boumediene family was able to join him in France. It has now been ten years since Lahmar has seen his wife and two children.