Even if he is found not guilty and acquitted of his charges, Abd al-Rahim al Nashiri, the Guantanamo detainee accused of planning the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, may still be imprisoned for the rest of his life, according to US government documents released Wednesday.
Al-Nashiri is set to be arraigned next week at Guantanamo Bay on charges that he helped plan the bombing of a US warship in port in Yemen in 2000, an attack which killed 17 people and wounded 37 others. If found guilty, he could be executed.
His defense attorneys filed an order two weeks ago demanding that the government clarify whether it intends to continue holding al-Nashiri in military detention in the case he is found not guilty. Because al-Nashiri is being held in military detention, the government claims, he can be held for “the duration of hostilities,” regardless of his verdict.
Al-Nashiri was exposed to water-boarding and other forms of torture, including mock executions involving a gun and a power drill. In his testimony to the Combatant Status Review Hearing in Guantanamo he claimed, “From the time I was arrested five years ago, they have been torturing me.”
Yea that's fair…in Washington. I hope this gets well publicized in the rest of the world.
al-Nashiri is already convicted and sentenced. Don't need no stinkin' trial. Amerika are above law. Any law. Lawless and a force for injustice EVERYWHERE.
Because we're so exceptional.
Exceptionally evil indeed.
Who's budget is his life sentence going to be funded by- the DoD, CIA, State Department, DHS…? If he's not executed- in which case much of the world, rightly or wrongly will view him as a martyr for The Cause- his imprisonment will have to be paid out of someone's budget. Who's going to take the responsibility? It's all academic anyway, the USG is going to do what it wants regardless of the legality.
It doesn't sound like he stands much of a chance in this trial does it? Democracy's 'top superpower model' does it again.
Free all guantanamo prisoners.