US: Lawyers renew attack on Guantánamo on its 16th anniversary

On 11 January 2002, the authorities opened the detention facility, where at least 780 men would ultimately be held. Today, 41 men are still detained. Some 31 of the men have endured at least a decade of detention without being charged with a crime by US courts.

Reprieve’s clients have recently reported being denied medical treatment, and subjected to fresh abuses. These compound the recent history of US torture in detention, including those practices outlined in the US Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on CIA detention and interrogation.

The call comes ahead of an event in Washington DC today, where the Center for Constitutional Rights, Reprieve, and counsel for several other detainees will announce a court filing challenging President Trump’s Guantánamo policy.

Reprieve attorney Shelby Sullivan-Bennis, who represents Guantánamo detainees, said: “It’s shameful that 16 years after the opening of Guantánamo, we are still holding people without charge or trial on the basis of faulty ‘intelligence’ extracted through torture.

“Guantánamo is a violation of America’s strongest-held principles concerning the rule of law. If our current President really wants to make America great again, he should make 2018 the year that we close this legal black hole. It is the responsibility of the courts and Congress to hold him to account in doing so.”