Earlier, the Biden administration announced its plans to review the policy on the future of the notorious prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and said that it plans to shutter the detention center by the end of its tenure.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has confirmed the intentions of the administration of President Joe Biden to close the detention camp located in Guantanamo Bay.
The secretary of state, however, did not specify when Guantanamo is expected to ultimately be closed.
In early April, the US Southern Command stated that the once-secret Camp VII, where the highly classified detainees were housed, has been closed, and the remaining detainees have been moved to other facilities.
Despite this, no announcements about the camp’s full closure, which once housed over 700 people, most of whom were kept without charges pressed against them, were produced, as the administration continued its policy review.
The US Supreme Court, meanwhile, announced this week that it will hear the case of terrorist suspect prison inmate Abu Zubaydah, who alleged that he was tortured by CIA contractors at a facility, a so-called black site, in Poland after he was captured in 2002 for alleged links with al-Qaeda* and its leader, Osama bin Laden. The assertion that Zubaydah was among the terrorist group’s top members turned out to be false, as the CIA concluded by 2006 that he had not even been a member.
Zubaydah also filed a lawsuit with the UN, saying he was held in illegal detention and tortured in secret CIA interrogation centers in Thailand, Poland, Morocco, Lithuania, Afghanistan, and the prison at Guantanamo Bay.
The prison at Guantanamo Bay was established after the September 11, 2001 attacks by former President George W. Bush. Previously, representatives of a number of international organizations, including OSCE and UN experts as well as human rights activists called on the US to immediately close the prison due to the fact that many prisoners were held there without trial or investigation and were subjected to torture and mistreatment.
Alpha Block cell of Camp VI in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base
In February, the United Nations said that the Biden administration’s review of the Guantanamo Bay detention center must ensure that remedies are provided for detainees that have been tortured there. The remaining 40 detainees at the detention center are now elderly individuals affected by physical and psychological torture, the UN said, adding that Washington must ensure it never repeats the same practices again and that crimes committed at the detention center do not remain unpunished.
Former President Barack Obama signed an executive order to close Guantanamo more than 10 years ago. But Obama’s intentions were unsuccessful, as Congress refused to provide funds for a prison shut down, and his administration was met with fierce resistance from the Pentagon. His successor, Donald Trump, canceled Obama’s decree and signed an order to keep it open indefinitely.
Overall, a total of 775 prisoners have been kept in Guantanamo, the vast majority of them never appeared before a court.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
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