Asadullah Haroon Gul was denied entry to a lawyer, held for 14 years at Guantanamo with out cost; now ordered freed.
A United States decide has dominated the USA has no authorized foundation for holding an Afghan man on the infamous US jail camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, setting the stage for his potential launch, his lawyer informed Al Jazeera.
Asadullah Haroon Gul, an Afghan nationwide, has been held at Guantanamo since June 2007 after he was captured within the jap metropolis of Jalalabad by Afghan forces and turned over to the US army.
US District Court docket Decide Amit Mehta, ruling on a petition of habeas corpus, has rejected the US authorities’s arguments for persevering with to carry Gul in detention at Guantanamo.
“The end result of the petition was that it was granted,” mentioned Tara Plochocki, Gul’s lawyer who mentioned she was “delighted” by the decide’s ruling.
Gul was held for 14 years at Guantanamo with out cost and denied entry to a lawyer for the primary 9 years of his detention, in response to Reprieve, a US authorized advocacy group. In 2016, his attorneys filed a petition in federal court docket in Washington, DC, arguing his detention was illegal.
Particulars of the decide’s ruling are categorised as secret in the meanwhile however Gul’s lawyer mentioned the result’s clear.
“The decide has dominated that his detention is against the law. And as with every different court docket order towards the US authorities, there’s a constitutional obligation to present have an effect on to that order. And so, it ought to imply that he’s instantly launched,” Plochocki informed Al Jazeera.
Sehar Bibi holds {a photograph} of son Asadullah, in Shamshatu refugee camp close to Pakistan’s northwestern metropolis of Peshawar [Abdul Majeed/AFP]Habeas corpus is a centuries-old precept of British and US widespread regulation that enables individuals who have been wrongfully imprisoned to problem the idea of their persevering with detention.
Whereas the US Supreme Court docket dominated in 2008 that Guantanamo detainees have a proper to petition for a writ of habeas corpus, Decide Mehta’s ruling is the primary time in 10 years a detainee has gained a habeas corpus declare, Plochoki mentioned.
Gul had been member of a bunch known as Hezb-e-Islami, or the Islamic Celebration of Afghanistan, which reached a peace settlement with the Western-backed Afghan authorities in Kabul in 2016.
His attorneys had argued that as a result of US hostilities in Afghanistan had ceased, he must be launched however the decide rejected these arguments.
Gul was by no means a part of the Taliban, or al-Qaeda or any al-Qaeda group and didn’t struggle towards the US. He asserted in court docket paperwork that he had been on a enterprise journey to Afghanistan from the refugee camp in Pakistan, the place he was dwelling along with his household, when he was captured.
The decide’s ruling signifies authorities attorneys didn’t make a case that Gul might proceed to be detained due to any connection to al-Qaeda.
“We have been the primary case to take a run at what the statute truly means and the way the federal government’s construing it” and whether or not the US was “prolonging their detention authority by any means essential”, Plochocki mentioned.
Importantly, previous to the decide’s ruling, a US army overview board dominated on October 7 that it was protected to launch Gul and his detention no was longer essential, citing a “lack of management in extremist organizations” and “lack of clear ideological foundation for his prior conduct”.
“The board’s suggestion is welcome, however we must always keep in mind Asadullah has spent greater than 14 years of his life in jail with out cost or trial,” Reprieve US lawyer Mark Maher mentioned in an announcement.
“Asadullah missed his daughter’s whole childhood. He must be reunited along with his household as quickly as doable, however there is no such thing as a option to restore what has been taken from them.”
Any effort by Justice Division attorneys — who had been defending the federal government’s authority to detain Gul — to enchantment the district decide’s ruling could be undercut by the overview board resolution that he must be launched.
Haroon Gul is considered one of 39 males nonetheless being held at Guantanamo and now considered one of 13 who’ve been cleared by the army overview board for launch. Some males have had clearances for years and nonetheless languish within the jail.
President Joe Biden has promised to shut Guantanamo, the place greater than 740 males have been detained between 2002 and 2017 — typically with none formal expenses, and in some circumstances, subjected to torture.
