124 | Towards the Closure of Guantanamo
B.
Detainees not cleared for transfer
306. As of March 2015, there were 66 Guantanamo detainees who had not been
designated for transfer who fall into two categories: detainees designated for
prosecution and detainees designated for continuing detention by the interagency
review task force in 2009.
1.
Detainees facing criminal charges
307. As of December 2014, there were 32 detainees at Guantanamo who had been
designated for prosecution by the Guantanamo Review Task Force. The United
States administration brought war crimes charges against 19 of them. According to
information published by the Office of Military Commissions, 369 by the end of 2014
there were five active cases pending before military commissions involving nine
detainees currently held at Guantanamo. Of those active cases, only Abd al-Rahim
al-Nashiri, Abd al Hadi al-Iraqi, and the five men accused of plotting the September
11 attacks (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, Ali Abd al-Aziz
Ali, Waleed Bin ‘Attash, and Ramzi Bin al-Shibh) actually face formal charges. All of
them are among the category of “high-value” detainees and face the death penalty.
In the remaining two cases, a plea agreement has been reached but the detainees
remain held at Guantanamo. Several other cases are inactive because charges were
dismissed without prejudice or the case has not been referred to a military
commission. Since the opening of the detention facility in 2002, only eight prisoners
have been convicted at military commissions at Guantanamo; two of those
convictions were overturned on appeal.
308. Majid Khan, one of the “high-value” detainees and the only U.S. resident at
Guantanamo, pleaded guilty in February 2012. The deal reportedly requires him to
testify against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the purported mastermind of the
September 11 attacks, and other terrorist suspects. The plea agreement allegedly
establishes a maximum sentence of 19 years but sentencing was postponed for four
years. According to Mr. Khan’s counsel, he was abducted in 2003, imprisoned and
tortured by U.S. officials at secret overseas “black sites” operated by the CIA before
being transferred to Guantanamo in September 2006. 370 Ahmed al-Darbi reached a
plea agreement with the prosecution in February 2014, in which he agreed to testify
against al-Nashiri. The plea reportedly gave him a sentence of nine to 15 years, of
369
370
Department
of
Defense,
Office
of
Military
Commissions.
Available
at:
http://www.mc.mil/Cases.aspx?caseType=omc&status=4&id=23
Appendix
A
to
the
Pre-Trial
Agreement,
February
29,
2012.
Available
at:
http://www.mc.mil/Portals/0/pdfs/Khan/Khan%20(AE013)%20-%20Appendix%20A.pdf. See also, The New
York Times, Testimony on Al Qaeda Is Required in Plea Deal, February 29, 2012. Available at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/01/us/majid-khan-pleads-guilty-to-terrorism-plots-in-militarycourt.html?_r=0; and Center for Constitutional Rights, Khan v. Obama/ Khan v. Gates. Available at:
http://ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/khan-v.-obama-/-khan-v.-gates
Organization of American States | OAS
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