[Ppnews] Bagram prisoner Yunus Rahmatullah v British Government
Political Prisoner News
ppnews at freedomarchives.org
Wed Nov 23 10:57:30 EST 2011
Reprieve +44 (0)207 427 1082 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Wed 23 November 2011)
Hearing tomorrow 1030am Court of Appeal:
Bagram prisoner Yunus Rahmatullah v British Government
Lawyers representing a prisoner held illegally at
the US military prison at Bagram Airbase will
today seek to force the British Government to secure his release.
Yunus Rahmatullah was picked up in Iraq by
British forces in 2004 and handed over for
rendition by the US to Afghanistan. He has been
held without charge or trial in the notorious
Bagram Theater Internment Facility for over seven years.
In a compelling habeas case, Mr Rahmatullah's
legal team will argue in the Court of Appeal that
the British Government has the power to secure
his release and is duty bound to do so.
All welcome.
Yunus Rahmatullah vs Secretary of State for
Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Others
1030 am Thursday 24th October
Court 71, Court of Appeal
The Master of the Rolls; Lord Justice Maurice Kay; Lord Justice Sullivan
ENDS
Notes to editors
1. For further information please go to
<http://reprieve.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=24d3ae56d0&e=f8755a10f3>http://www.reprieve.org.uk/cases/yunusrahmatullah/
or contact Donald Campbell in Reprieve’s press office on +44 (0)20 7427 1082
2.
<http://reprieve.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=c5d2308ebb&e=f8755a10f3>Yunus
Rahmatullah has been held beyond the rule of law
for over seven years in Bagram Airforce Base. He
is said to be in a very grave mental and physical condition.
In February 2009, after years of government
denials that the UK had been involved in any
rendition operations, then-Secretary of State for
Defence John Hutton announced to Parliament that
UK forces had captured two men in Iraq in
February 2004, and handed them to US forces. In
subsequent statements to Parliament, the
government revealed that in March 2004, British
officials had become aware of the US intention to
transfer the men from Iraq to Afghanistan.
The British government admitted its complicity in
crime (kidnapping, otherwise called rendition),
admitted it was wrong, and appeared to apologize.
Yet it did not and refused to identify the men -
a crucial step if they are to be reunited with
their basic human rights. Indeed, the government
has apparently done nothing over the past seven
years to ensure that they receive legal assistance.
Reprieve led a complicated and expensive search
for the identity of these men, which covered
three continents over ten months. One of the men
has been identified as Amanatullah Ali and the other as Yunus Rahmatullah.
Yunus Rahmatullah, also known by his nickname
'Saleh Huddin', was raised in the Gulf states.
For six years, he was held incommunicado, unable
to even contact his family. Reprieve has been
told by multiple sources that, as a result of his
abuse in UK and US custody, he is in catastrophic
mental and physical shape, and now spends most of
his time in the mental health cells at Bagram.
Yunus's family insist on keeping their current
location confidential. They are legally in their
country of residence, but fear that they will
suffer reprisals if they are known to be opposing
the British and US governments.
Yunus’s mother Fatima Rahmatullah issued the
following statement on April 15, 2010:
“Yunus is the youngest and closest son to my
heart. I lost my other son, his only brother, in
a tragic accident. Now, Yunus is my only hope in
life. I see him in my dreams; I pray daily that I
will see him in my waking hours again.
“Our family was shocked when we learned that the
British government might have been behind Yunus’
disappearance. I am told the British government
has refused even to confirm that Yunus was the
person they seized six years ago. As a mother,
this is a position that I struggle to understand."
Reprieve sued the UK Government to formally
identify Yunus Rahmatullah, and is now
<http://reprieve.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=c73961b54d&e=f8755a10f3>suing
for habeas relief in the British courts. The case
is now in the Court of Appeal.
3. Originally used to process prisoners captured
during Operation Enduring Freedom,
<http://reprieve.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=e87b84226a&e=f8755a10f3>Bagram
<http://reprieve.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=e87b84226a&e=f8755a10f3>Theater
Internment Facility has become backlogged with
prisoners who are held for years without charge, trial or legal rights.
Hamidullah Khan, for example, was picked up while
travelling from Karachi to his father's village
in Waziristan to salvage the family's possesions
during the ongoing military operation. He was
just fourteen. He is currently being held at
Bagram and
<http://reprieve.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=323e211bdd&e=f8755a10f3>his
family are desperate for his return.
Unlike detainees at Guantánamo, prisoners at
<http://reprieve.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=f145b7d4d1&e=f8755a10f3>Bagram
are still being held in a legal black-hole; they
have no access to lawyers and thus are unable to
challenge their detention, despite the fact that
between 2002 and 2008 several prisoners who had
undergone torture were released without having even been put on trial.
As a senator and presidential candidate, Obama
unequivocally rejected the "false choice between
fighting terrorism and respecting habeas corpus".
Yet when his adminstration took office it chose
to stand by Bush's legal arguments concerning
Bagram detainees: as enemy combatants they had no constitutional rights.
<http://reprieve.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=5d1828896a&e=f8755a10f3>Prisoners
have been subjected to beatings, stress
positions, sexual abuse and humiliation, sensory
deprivation, sleep, food and water deprivation,
exposure to cold temperature, dousing with cold
water and blaring of loud music.
<http://reprieve.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=eadee633b2&e=f8755a10f3>Tariq
Dergoul, a British National, was injured by the
Northern Alliance and then sold to the US for
$5,000. While detained at Bagram, he suffered
frostbite for which he was denied medical care.
He ultimately required the amputation of the affected limb.
<http://reprieve.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=f02dea97b4&e=f8755a10f3>Dilawar
was a taxi driver, known to be innocent by his
interrogators, who was murdered by his captors in
December 2002. He was subjected to over 100
sadistic blows to his legs by various guards,
strikes performed as "a kind of running joke". As
a result, his legs became "pulpified", according
to the autopsy report, and the blunt trauma killed him.
Reprieve's local partner
<http://reprieve.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=3239427efc&e=f8755a10f3>Justice
Project Pakistan (JPP) is fighting a
ground-breaking case filed on behalf of seven
Pakistanis imprisoned in Bagram Air Base, which
<http://reprieve.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=5d500958a6&e=f8755a10f3>challenges
the Pakistan Government over their role in
renditions. Awwal Khan,
<http://reprieve.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=3024c4292e&e=f8755a10f3>Hamidullah
Khan, Abdul Haleem Saifullah, Fazal Karim, Amal
Khan, Iftikhar Ahmad and
<http://reprieve.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=96de323427&e=f8755a10f3>Yunus
Rahmatullah were abducted from Pakistan and taken
to Bagram, where they have been kept without
charge or trial since 2003. One prisoner is
merely 16 years of age and was seized two years
ago at the age of 14. Another was not permitted
to speak to his family for six years, and is
believed to be in a grievous physical and psychological condition.
For the BBC's reporting on allegations of abuse
and neglect at Bagram please
<http://reprieve.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=1d839cd1d1&e=f8755a10f3>click
here.
Bagram prison originally consisted of crude pens
fashioned from metal cages surrounded by coils of
razor wire. Roughly twenty people shared a cage,
sleeping on foam mats and using plastic buskets
as toilets. Military personnel described it as
"far more spartan" than Guantánamo.
Faced with serious overcrowding in 2004, the
military began refurbishing the prison and
installed flush toilets. As of 2005, the US Army
claimed that Bagram had a maximum capacity of 595
prisoners. The basic infrastructure, however,
remained the same. Hundreds of detainees were
still held in wire-mesh pens and exercise,
kitchen and bathroom space was minimal.
In August 2008 the US government awarded a $50
million
<http://reprieve.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=eda0d90bc3&e=f8755a10f3>contract
for a new prison. This is now completed, but in
the wake of the redevelopment reports still
circulate of an undisclosed part of the site
(sometimes referred to as a "Temporary Screening
Facility") where
<http://reprieve.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=14619a26c3&e=f8755a10f3>abusive
practices continue.
4.
<http://reprieve.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=1049b35075&e=f8755a10f3>Reprieve,
a legal action charity, uses the law to enforce
the human rights of prisoners, from death row to
Guantánamo Bay. Reprieve investigates, litigates
and educates, working on the frontline, to
provide legal support to prisoners unable to pay
for it themselves. Reprieve promotes the rule of
law around the world, securing each person’s
right to a fair trial and saving lives. Clive
Stafford Smith is the founder of Reprieve and has
spent 25 years working on behalf of people facing the death penalty in the USA.
Reprieve’s current casework involves representing
15
<http://reprieve.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=73598661f6&e=f8755a10f3>prisoners
in the US prison at Guantánamo Bay, assisting
over 70
<http://reprieve.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=6604818cde&e=f8755a10f3>prisoners
facing the death penalty around the world, and
conducting ongoing
<http://reprieve.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=befc9c32df&e=f8755a10f3>investigations
into the rendition and the secret detention of
‘ghost prisoners’ in the so-called ‘war on
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<http://reprieve.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=b936458590&e=f8755a10f3>@ReprieveUK;
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