[Pnews] Guantanamo Bay: Victim of mistaken identity to be released, says lawyer

[Prisoner News]

middleeasteye.net
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/guantanamo-bay-victim-mistaken-identity-ahmed-rabbani-to-released-lawyer>
Guantanamo
Bay: Victim of mistaken identity to be released, says lawyer
By Peter Oborne in Islamabad - October 11, 2021
------------------------------

Ahmed Rabbani has been detained at notorious facility since 2004, despite a
US Senate report establishing in 2014 that he was the victim of mistaken
identity

Camp 5 at the US military's prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on 26 January
2017 (AFP)

Published date: 11 October 2021 19:30 UTC | Last update: 3 hours 41 mins ago


A Pakistani national has been scheduled for release from Guantanamo Bay
more than six years after the US Senate concluded he had been mistaken for
a terrorist, his lawyer told Middle East Eye.

Ahmed Rabbani, who has been held at the notorious offshore detention centre
since 2004 on suspicion of ties to al-Qaeda, was cleared for release, his
lawyer Clive Stafford Smith told MEE on Sunday.

"Even if it is nearly two decades late, it is fabulous that Ahmed has been
cleared for release," said Stafford Smith.

Rabbani, a Pakistani national of Rohingya Burmese ethnic background, was
captured by Pakistani authorities in 2002 before being transferred to the
notorious Cobalt prison in Kabul, an interrogation centre often referred to
as "the darkness" by its detainees.

<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/guantanamo-bay-cia-torture-programme-supreme-court-hearing>

Guantanamo Bay: CIA 'torture programme' in spotlight at US Supreme Court

The 52-year-old was held in CIA custody for more than 540 days either in
Cobalt or another nearby secret prison before being sent to Guantanamo Bay
prison.

In 2014, a US Senate report on CIA interrogation established
<https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/publications/CRPT-113srpt288.pdf>
that Rabbani was the victim of mistaken identity and was wrongly thought to
be a high ranking al-Qaeda militant called Hassan Ghul.

Ghul was himself later captured and taken to Cobalt when Rabbani was still
there. He was in due course released and sent back to Pakistan where he
returned to his former militant life and was killed in a drone attack in
2012 - raising questions as to why Rabbani was not released years ago.

Still, Stafford Smith, who has campaigned for Rabbani's release for the
last 16 years, noted that "We must not get ahead of ourselves as being
cleared for release in Guantanamo does not automatically mean you go home."

He added that "One of my clients hums Hotel California at me - 'You can
check out, but you can never leave' - four men are still there though they
were cleared over ten years ago. But at least we are now going to be
arguing about when he should go home, rather than, whether".
'At last, I will have someone I can rely on'

According to the 2014 US Senate report, Rabbani was held in total darkness,
with loud music played constantly to subject prisoners to sleep
deprivation. He was also subjected to strappado, a form of torture invented
by the Spanish inquisition whereby victims are hung by a hand by an iron
shackle.

Rabbani was also one of the detainees subjected to torture "without the
approval of CIA Headquarters", the report said.

Jawad Rabbani, Ahmed Rabbani's 18-year-old son, described the impact of his
father's detention on his upbringing. Born six months after his father's
abduction, Jawad told MEE that while he had never physically met his
father, he was elated to hear of his release.

<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/guantanamo-bay-iraqi-detainee-suffering-paralysis>

Guantanamo Bay: Sixty-year old Iraqi detainee suffering from paralysis

"I feel so happy because I will meet and have experiences with him, now, at
last, I will have someone I can rely on and give me guidance".

Earlier this year, the Biden administration announced that it intended
<https://edition.cnn.com/2021/09/19/politics/guantanamo-state-of-play/index.html>
to close the facility within the next four years and also launched a formal
review of the US military prison.

The facility currently houses 39 prisoners, with 10 detainees - now
including Rabbani - having been cleared for release but have yet to be
transferred.

Last May, Ahmed Rabbani's older brother Abdul was also cleared for release,
as was a third Pakistani, Saifullah Paracha, who was kidnapped by the
United States in Thailand. However, neither Saifullah Paracha nor Abdul
Rabbani have yet to be freed.

The Rabbani brothers and others have been cleared by the Periodic Review
Board <https://www.prs.mil/> established by former President Barack Obama.
The review board system comprises one person from each of the six main US
intelligence agencies, all of whom have to agree that the detainee is "no
threat to the US or its coalition partners".
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