Final evening I had a name with my consumer Ahmed Rabbani, one of many 39 detainees nonetheless held in Guantanamo Bay. Like virtually half of the lads held on the notorious US navy facility, Ahmed has been cleared for launch some months in the past, however he’s nonetheless caught there. As one in every of his fellow inmates as soon as mentioned, Guantanamo is very like the Resort California described within the well-known Eagles track, you’ll be able to “try any time you want, however you’ll be able to by no means depart”.
Nonetheless, I had hoped that Ahmed can be house in Pakistan earlier than the top of the vacation season. There was nothing stopping it: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has put his private seal of approval on his return. However this didn’t occur. So I needed to name him to ship some pressing, and unwelcome, information.
I needed to inform Ahmed that his mother-in-law is on her deathbed in a hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. That the medical doctors imagine she solely has 4 or 5 days of life left. 4 days, after all, is loads of time for a jet airplane to hold Ahmed from Guantanamo to Karachi – however provided that the US navy permits him to go. It’s unlikely that they are going to act in time, and Ahmed is conscious of this. So I really gave Ahmed the unhappy information that he’ll possible by no means see his mother-in-law once more.
There was silence on the opposite finish of the road after I completed talking. “I’ve misplaced a lot of my family members throughout my 20 years right here,” Ahmed finally mentioned. “Two of them, specifically, have been very near me, and I used to be very unhappy and depressed once they died. One was a relative who died 5 years in the past, who handled me like her personal son. The opposite was my father. It’s horribly unhappy that now my mother-in-law is on this place. If she passes away, that can depart me as probably the most senior member of the household, with all of the accountability. But I’m caught in right here.”
“It is a very unhappy state of affairs.” Ahmed continued, quietly. “Whereas I’m listening to this, I’m really crying. My spouse has suffered alone for 20 years with out me and that is actually the final straw for her. For me, my mother-in-law is far more than simply my spouse’s mom, she loves me and I like her very a lot. Typically she acted as if she cherished me greater than her personal youngsters. It could have been an honour for me to spend her final days along with her and do every part I might for her.”
“I want at the very least I might kiss her ft earlier than she dies,” he concluded.
I didn’t know tips on how to reply. It’s possible that my nation will deny him this final dignity.
Ahmed has been on starvation strike virtually repeatedly since 2013, and regardless of being force-fed twice a day, misplaced half of his weight, doing irreparable injury to his physique. Over the fifteen years I represented him, he additionally got here near dropping his will to stay and tried ending his life a number of instances. So I nervous that the information I delivered might as soon as once more plunge him right into a self-destructive episode of despair, and I requested him about his well being.
“I used to be consuming and getting a bit of higher after I heard I used to be cleared [for release],” he mentioned. “However now I’ve some coronary heart issues. Every time I breathe in deeply, I get a ache in my chest.
“It’s a stress subject,” he continued. “There’s a large stress when you could have been cleared however you can’t be launched. Earlier than I discovered that I might go house, sooner or later right here was equal to 10 days of an actual life, dragging by endlessly. Now every day is sort of a month. We’re ready. We all know we’re going to be launched sooner or later, so there may be hope. But we sit up for it, and nothing occurs. Our nation is prepared to simply accept us, America has mentioned go, and but right here we keep, whereas my mother-in-law dies. The ready with hope is worse than no hope in any respect.”
Throughout the name, we additionally briefly mentioned January 11, 2022 – the twentieth anniversary of the Guantanamo jail.
“For us,” Ahmed mentioned, “it’s an anniversary of struggling. I want it was the anniversary of my demise, it will have been higher. I’ve stayed alive just because I wish to see my household, in any other case I might have gone house in a coffin way back. I’m now in my 50s and there may be not a lot between me and demise. Maybe we’ve got to kill ourselves earlier than they take discover.”
Ahmed wonders whether or not his case has change into a political soccer between the US and Pakistan. “What does Biden need from me? Why is he maintaining me right here? I’ve no reply.”
He says he can see just one approach out of his predicament. “I solely have one resolution, just one factor I can do the place I’m in command of my very own future: I believe that I’ll go on a peaceable starvation strike.”
“I’m prepared to do it till I die this time, if solely to assist the others to get out. I’ll begin it instantly. Proper after this name I’ll go into solitary confinement. I’ll refuse every part till I die, and go house in a field. Till I die. It’s not laborious for me to die.”
I imagine, after virtually 20 years of struggling, it actually wouldn’t be laborious for Ahmed to die. But it surely additionally wouldn’t be laborious for the Biden administration to cease losing time and let him go house in time to see his beloved mother-in-love one final time.
My nation stole many years from this man’s life, the least it will probably do is to indicate him some compassion, this one time.
Simply earlier than the publication of this text Ahmed Rabbani’s mother-in-law handed away. His lawyer has not been capable of cross him a message, so he stays unaware.
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.