90 | Towards the Closure of Guantanamo Circuit court remanded that conviction to the original panel of the Court for it to dispose of remaining issues. 212. The judges unanimously agreed that the charges for terrorism and solicitation must be vacated as ex post facto violations, given that the conduct in question occurred prior to the enactment of the 2006 Military Commissions Act. The decision in Bahlul does not, however, fully resolve the viability of charging conspiracy as a stand-alone offense because the majority reasoned that Bahlul had forfeited his ex post facto objection by failing to raise it on appeal, and accordingly decided the point on the lower standard of “plain error.” Thus, the eventual fate of conspiracy as a stand-alone offense, and the government’s domestic war crimes theory remain pending a full review. Further, the various opinions in the decision expressed different visions of the role of military commissions and the meaning of what the government presents as domestic war crimes. 245 c. Due process concerns 213. The Inter-American Commission welcomes the substantial amendments made to the MCA in 2009, removing some grave due process violations set out in the 2006 MCA and including important changes to the military commissions, in particular the granting of some basic procedural protections afforded in courts-martial proceedings. Despite these significant improvements, the IACHR is still deeply concerned with regard to, inter alia: the independence and impartiality of the military commissions; the uncertainty regarding the application of the U.S. Constitution; respect for the right to equality before the law, to confrontation and to a speedy trial; respect for the principle of legality, and the retroactive prosecution of crimes. 214. The IACHR has recognized that United States courts generally offer a range of due process protections to individuals who are the subject of criminal proceedings. 246 Federal courts in the U.S. have successfully dealt with high-profile cases of terrorism and have reportedly completed nearly 500 cases related to international terrorism since September 11, 2001. 247 Ahmed Ghailani, a participant in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, was transferred from Guantanamo in June 2009 and tried in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. On January 25, 2011, he was sentenced to life in prison and is now held at the ADX Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado. Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, Bin Laden’s son-inlaw and spokesman for Al-Qaeda after the 2001 attacks, was the most senior AlQaeda member sentenced in federal courts. On September 23, 2014, the same 245 246 247 See in this regard, Opinio Juris, Guest Post: The D.C. Circuit’s En Banc Ruling in Al Bahlul: Legal Innovation, Tradition, and America’s Domestic Common Law of War, by Jonathan Hafetz. Available at: http://opiniojuris.org/2014/07/22/guest-post-d-c-circuits-en-banc-ruling-al-bahlul-legal-innovation-traditionamericas-domestic-common-law-war/ IACHR, Report No. 44/14, Case 12.873, Merits (Publication), Edgar Tamayo Arias, July 17, 2014, para. 150. National Constitution Center, Constitution Check: Are the Guantanamo war crimes courts now doomed? By Lyle Denniston, July 22, 2014. Available at: http://blog.constitutioncenter.org/2014/07/constitution-checkare-the-guantanamo-war-crimes-courts-now-doomed/ Organization of American States | OAS