Tunesia

Tunisian Guantanamo Detainees to be Released By End of 2012

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Published July 9, 2012, in Detainee Release, Tunesia

Tunisian Secretary of State for American and Asian Affairs, Hedi Ben Abbes, stated in an interview with Tunisia Live that the five Tunisians still remaining in the U.S Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay will be back to Tunisia by the end of this year.

“We expect an American delegation to come to Tunisia beginning of September, and hopefully – I cross my fingers – they will be brought home before the end of the year,” said Ben Abbes.

Ben Abbes headed a three person delegation that traveled to Guantanamo last week to discuss the possibility of releasing the five remaining Tunisian detainees.

Five Tunisian citizens, never given a trial or formally charged with a crime, remain in the notorious detention center despite having been cleared for release by U.S. authorities under the Bush administration.

According to Ben Abbes, the situation facing these Tunisians is complicated, and it may take some time to secure their release. ”We’ve been working on this issue for six months. The situation is bit sophisticated, if not complicated…There are no charges against them [the Tunisian detainees]. These people were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They are detainees, not prisoners,” said Ben Abbes.

“It is not a matter of weeks, it is a matter of a few months,” he added.

Ben Abbes said that, during his visit, he conducted a 45 minute interview with each of Tunisians held at the facility, and, according to him, their situation has improved significantly. “Their situation has improved. They have a number of facilities, they watch TV, listen to the radio.. During the interview, they were informed of what is happening in Tunisia. They were in good shape physically. Mentally they were really strong. They are believers, their strong beliefs have shielded them,” explained Ben Abbes.

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Farce at Guantánamo

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Published April 6, 2009, in Abdul Haddi bin Hadiddi, Ghaleb al-Bihani, Hedi Hammamy, Hisham Sliti, Lotfi bin Ali, Mohamed el-Gharani, Salim Hamdan, Tunesia

by Andy Worthington

In 2007, after four rounds of administrative reviews at Guantánamo, Hedi Hammamy, a Tunisian prisoner, born in 1969, was cleared for release, having satisfied the Pentagon that he no longer represented a threat to the United States or its allies and no longer possessed any ongoing intelligence value. He was not released, however, because, although the U.S. government had secured a “diplomatic assurance” from the government of the Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, which purported to guarantee that returned prisoners would be treated humanely, two prisoners returned in June 2007 were apparently mistreated in Tunisian custody and were then imprisoned after what were regarded by human rights observers as show trials.

This prompted a district court judge to prevent the return of a third Tunisian in November 2007, with the result that this man, Lotfi bin Ali, and several other cleared Tunisians — including Hedi Hammamy — have languished in Guantánamo ever since, as the State Department has tried in vain to find a third country prepared to accept them.

 

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Judge Rules U.S. May Continue to Hold Guantanamo Detainee

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Published April 3, 2009, in Abdul Haddi bin Hadiddi, Guantanamo, Hedi Hammamy, Tunesia

By Del Quentin Wilber

A federal judge has ruled that the government may continue to detain a 40-year-old Tunisian at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In a nine-page decision issued yesterday, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon found that the government had produced enough evidence to show that Hedi Hammamy had supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban or their associated forces. Hammamy was challenging his detention in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court under the centuries-old legal doctrine of habeas corpus.

The government alleged that Hammamy fought with Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan. And, they alleged, he was a member of an Italy-based terror cell that provided support to Islamic fundamentalists. Hammamy was arrested by authorities in Pakistan in April 2002 and turned over to the United States.

 

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Judge rules Afghan detainees can sue in U.S. court

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Published April 2, 2009, in Afghanistan, Amin al Bakri, Bagram, Fadi al Maqaleh, habeas corpus, Redha al-Najar, Tunesia

By James Vicini

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A federal judge ruled on Thursday that some detainees at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan could sue for their release in civilian courts, dealing a blow to the U.S. government’s position on the issue.

 

The Obama administration, following in the footsteps of the previous Bush administration, has argued that the detainees at Bagram base have no right to have lawsuits heard in federal courts.

 

But U.S. District Judge John Bates rejected that argument and said three of four detainees who filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. government can proceed with their bid to win freedom in the court system.

 

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Judge Agrees With Bush in Ruling on 2 Detainees

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Published December 31, 2008, in Hisham Sliti, Moath Hamza Ahmed al Alwi, Release Denied, Tunesia, Yemen

By WILLIAM GLABERSON

A federal judge in Washington ruled Tuesday that the government was properly holding two Guantánamo detainees as enemy combatants, the first clear-cut victories for the Bush administration in what are expected to be more than 200 similar cases.

The ruling by a federal district judge, Richard J. Leon, followed his decision last month in a separate case declaring that five Algerians had been held unlawfully at the detention camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for nearly seven years and ordering their release.

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