February 25, 2023, 1:00 AM
February 25, 2023, 1:00 AM
Two decades after being detained and prosecuted by the US, two Pakistani brothers who were held at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay have been released without charge.
Is about Abdul rahim and Mohammed Ahmed Rabbaniaged 55 and 53 respectively, who were arrested in Pakistan in 2002. In all these years they have not been formally charged with any offence.
The Pentagon pointed to Abdul Rabbani as the operator of a safe house for the extremist group al Qaeda. As for Mohammed, the Americans accused him of facilitating the organization of trips and the administration of funds for jihadist leaders.
The brothers maintained that they were tortured by agents of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States (CIA) before being transferred to Guantanamo.
Both have already been repatriated to Pakistan.
The Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba was designated by then US President George W. Bush as the site of incarceration for “terrorist suspects“ after the attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York and the Pentagon.
The base is a US Navy military operations center.
The camp has also been singled out as a site of “war on terror” excesses due to interrogation methods amounting to torture. In addition, there have been given imprisonment of several years without trial for the defendants.
US President Joe Biden says he hopes to close the detention center, where 32 people are still being held. At its peak in 2003, the site was holding 680 prisoners at any one time.
“The United States appreciates the willingness of the government of Pakistan and other partners to support ongoing US efforts focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility,” the Pentagon said in a statement. .
The brothers were captured by the Pakistani security services in the city of Karachi in September 2002.
It took nearly two years for them to be transferred to Guantanamo, after originally being held at a CIA detention center in Afghanistan.
In 2013, Ahmed Rabbani started a series of hunger strikes which lasted for seven years. She would survive on nutritional supplements, sometimes introduced against her will through a tube.
Clive Stafford Smith, a lawyer for the 3D Center who has represented both men, told the BBC he will try to sue over the brothers’ detention, “but their chances of compensation are slim. They won’t get a simple apology either,” he said. .
The release of both was approved in 2021. It is not clear why they have remained in prison since then.
both had been Related to Khalid Shaikh Mohammedwho faces a trial in Guantanamo accused of being part of the intellectual authorship of the attacks of September 11.
Mohammed Ahmed Rabbani’s wife was pregnant at the time of his arrest and only five months later gave birth to their son, whom he has not been able to meet until now.
“I have been talking to Ahmed’s son, Jawad, who is 20 years old and has never met or been able to touch his father, as his mother was pregnant when Ahmed was kidnapped. I met Jawad several times and I wish I had been there for his first hug.” Stafford Smith said.
During his stay in Guantanamo, Mohammed Ahmed Rabbani He became famous for his artistic work through painting.
performed about 100 frames while he was detained. Prior to the release of the Pakistani brothers, the Pentagon partially lifted a ban on the display of artwork made by prisoners at Guantanamo.
His lawyers were unclear as to whether Mohammed Ahmed was able to take his works with him on the military cargo plane in which he and his brother were repatriated to Pakistan.
However, an exhibition of his paintings is scheduled to be held in Karachi in May, with 12 other Pakistani artists inspired by his work, Stafford Smith added.
Abdul Rahim Rabanni, who is the older brother, did not do artistic work like his brother.
According to his representative Agnieszka Fryszman told the newspaper The New York Timeshe had been “busy with simple activities” like cleaning to “stay out of trouble.”
Intelligence documents seen by the US newspaper indicate that they had family in Karachi and that they worked as part-time taxi drivers before their arrest.
Maya Foa, director of the justice charity Reprieve, which provided legal representation to Mohammed Ahmed until last year, called his two decades of imprisonment a “tragedy” that “exemplifies how far the United States strayed from its founding principles during the era of the ‘war on terror'”.
“A son, a husband and a father were robbed from a family. That injustice can never be rectified. A full calculation of the damage caused by the disastrous ‘war on terror’ can only begin when Guantanamo is closed forever,” he noted.
Remember that you can receive notifications from BBC News World. Download the new version of our app and activate them so you don’t miss out on our best content.
