Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-17 03:51:06|Editor: yan

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RABAT, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- the Court of Appeal of the Moroccan capital Rabat has acquitted Younes Chekkouri, a former Moroccan Guantanamo detainee, official MAP news agency reported on Friday.

Chekkouri was captured in Afghanistan in 2001 and held in Guantanamo without charge for 14 years. In September 2015, the United States transferred him to Morocco as part of a renewed push by Barack Obama to release Guantanamo prisoners deemed to pose no threat.

The now 48-year-old Chekkouri was incarcerated after being handed over to the Moroccan authorities.

Following his preliminary hearing, the investigating judge in charge of terrorism cases ordered his prosecution on bail, in response to a motion from his defense, the report said.

Last May, Chekkouri was sentenced by a lower court to five years in prison for "setting up a criminal gang and undermining the internal security of the state," the same source noted. </s> Morocco has acquitted a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, held without charge by the US military for over 13 years, of "undermining state security", his lawyer said Friday.

Yunis Chekkouri was arrested by Pakistani forces in late December 2001 with a group of several dozen alleged fighters who had fled the Tora Bora cave complex in eastern Afghanistan, a stronghold of the Taliban and its Al-Qaeda allies.

The following year he was flown to the Guantanamo Bay military prison, where he was locked up for over 13 years but never charged.

In September 2015, Chekkouri was released and sent back home where the authorities put him on trial for "undermining state security".

He was acquitted on Thursday of any wrongdoing, his lawyer Khalil Idrissi told AFP. The official MAP news agency confirmed, citing the court.

"The mistake has been acknowledged... the charges against him were contradictory and had no logic to them," Idrissi said.

Chekkouri, who had repeatedly denied the accusations against him, told AFP after the verdict: "The nightmare is over."

In May last year, Chekkouri, who has said he travelled to Afghanistan on a "humanitarian" mission, was sentenced to five years in prison but he appealed.

"The verdict was unfair. I knew that I would be proven innocent," he told AFP.

"I can now say I have turned the page on Guantanamo," he said, calling it a "cruel prison" where he said detainees are submitted "every day to interrogations, physical and psychological tortures".

Under former US president George W. Bush, the US military built a prison camp on Guantanamo Bay, located on an American naval base on the eastern tip of Cuba, in the months following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

In January, US President Donald Trump announced he would keep the detention facility open, breaking from his predecessor Barack Obama's efforts to shutter it.

Guantanamo, once home to 780 prisoners detained for their alleged links to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, now holds 41 detainees. </s> A judge has ruled that former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr has completed his sentence and is now a free man.

Khadr, a Canadian, was held in U.S. custody under harsh conditions after his capture in Afghanistan in 2002. He was 15 years old at the time he was accused of throwing a grenade which killed a U.S. soldier.

He was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2010 and in 2012 was transferred to Canada to serve his time. Canada’s Supreme Court ruled that it should be considered a youth sentence and Khadr was released on bail in May 2015 under certain conditions including passport and travel restrictions, and not being allowed to visit his sister.

Today Justice Mary Moreau counted the time spent under his conditional release and ruled he had served the full sentence.

Khadr got millions for violation of his charter rights

In 2017, Khadr received a $10;5-million legal settlement and an official apology from the Canadian government because his charter rights were violated while he was held at Guantanamo Bay.

The court ruled: “The interrogation of a youth detained without access to counsel, to elicit statements about serious criminal charges while knowing that the youth had been subjected to sleep deprivation and while knowing that the fruits of the interrogations would be shared with the prosecutors, offends the most basic Canadian standards about the treatment of detained youth suspects.” The court ruled that Canada was complicit in Khadr’s treatment.

News of the settlement caused considerable controversy in Canada.

The legal battles in the Khadr case were very long and complicated. A timeline is available here. </s> A Durham University student has been sentenced to life in prison in the United Arab Emirates for spying.

Matthew Hedges, 31, had been held in solitary confinement since he was arrested on May 5 at Dubai Airport.

He appeared at the Federal Court of Appeal in October accused of spying for the British Government and was subsequently released on bail.

His passport was seized and he was ordered to remain in the UAE until Wednesday's court appearance.

And he has been sentenced to life in prison. A life sentence includes a maximum of 25 years in jail and is followed by deportation

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he was "deeply shocked and disappointed by the verdict."

A family spokeswoman, Nikita Bernardi, told press agency AFP after the hearing: "We can confirm that he was sentenced to life in prison. The hearing lasted less than five minutes, and his lawyer was not present."

Mr Hedges completed a Masters degree in Middle East Studies at Exeter, and began working on his PhD at Durham University in 2013.

In a statement in Arabic, the court said: "The Federal Appeals Court of Abu Dhabi sentenced Matthew Hedges, 31, to life imprisonment after being convicted of spying on the UAE and providing sensitive security and intelligence information to third parties.

"The court also ruled that he would be deported from the country after the execution of the sentence and would be charged the costs of the legal case.

"The court ordered the confiscation of all his equipment, devices, research and studies.

"The convicted person has the right to challenge the ruling with the State Security Department of the Federal Supreme Court within a maximum period of 30 days."

The latest court appearance was the third for the academic since his arrest almost seven months ago.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Middle East minister Alistair Burt have both travelled to the UAE since Mr Hedges was detained to make representations on his behalf.

His family said prior to his release on bail that they had only been allowed to visit him twice since during his detention.

His wife Daniela Tajeda told BBC News her husband had been suffering anxiety and panic attacks while in prison and had even expressed suicidal thoughts.

Previously, in a joint statement, Durham and Exeter Universities said they were "deeply concerned" for Mr Hedges' welfare.

Reacting to the result of the case, Mr Hunt said in a statement: “I am deeply shocked and disappointed by the verdict today. I have personally raised the case of Matthew Hedges at the highest levels of the UAE government, including during my visit to Abu Dhabi on 12 November.

"On that occasion, I spoke to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed and Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed.

“However, today’s verdict is not what we expect from a friend and trusted partner of the United Kingdom and runs contrary to earlier assurances.

“Our consular officials have been in close contact with Matthew Hedges and his family. We will continue to do everything possible to support him.

"I have repeatedly made clear that the handling of this case by the UAE authorities will have repercussions for the relationship between our two countries, which has to be built on trust.

"I regret the fact that we have reached this position and I urge the UAE to reconsider.” </s> EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — A Canadian judge on Friday denied former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr’s request for relaxed bail conditions and a Canadian passport.

Justice June Ross ruled there’s no evidence of hardship or conditions that are needlessly onerous.

The Canadian-born Khadr was 15 when he was captured by U.S. troops after a firefight at a suspected al-Qaida compound in Afghanistan that resulted in the death of U.S. Army Sgt. First Class Christopher Speer. Khadr was suspected of throwing the grenade that killed Speer.

He pleaded guilty in 2010 to charges that included murder and was sentenced to eight years plus the decade he had already spent in custody at the American prison. He returned to Canada from Guantanamo Bay two years later to serve the remainder of his sentence and was released in May 2015 pending an appeal of his guilty plea, which he said was made under duress.

Khadr’s lawyer had argued that it wasn’t fair that his client’s life remains restricted by a stalled U.S. court process that has no end in sight.

Khadr, who is now 32, wanted unsupervised conversations with his sister and a Canadian passport so that he could make a pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

Khadr also wanted to be able to travel to Toronto without the approval of his bail supervisor to visit his family more easily and to make court appearances related to a civil lawsuit he faces. Khadr does not know how long his bail conditions are in effect.

He was paid $8 million by Canada’s government last year under a court ruling that his rights were violated while he was locked up at Guantanamo.

News of the multimillion-dollar payout to Khadr, whose case received international attention after some dubbed him a child soldier, angered many who considered him a terrorist. </s> An Edmonton judge has ruled that a war crimes sentence for former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr has expired, according to The Canadian Press.

Khadr’s eight-year sentence would have ended last October but the clock topped ticking when a judge freed him on bail in 2015 pending his appeal of his military conviction in the United States.

Khadr spent several years in U.S. detention at Guantanamo Bay after he was captured and accused of tossing a grenade that killed a special forces soldier in Afghanistan in 2001.

The Supreme Court of Canada had previously said the punishment handed to Khadr for alleged acts committed in Afghanistan when he was 15 years old was to be a youth sentence.

Alberta judge Chief Justice Mary Moreau says the Youth Criminal Justice Act gives judges flexibility to consider bail conditions as part of a sentence. The Canadian Press says she told an Edmonton court Monday that, with that in mind, she ruled Khadr has served his time. </s> EDMONTON — An Edmonton judge has denied former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr's request for relaxed bail conditions and a Canadian passport.

Justice June Ross says there's no evidence of hardship or that the conditions are needlessly onerous.

She says nothing has really changed since the last time Khadr asked for changes to his bail conditions and the restrictions he faces are reasonable.

Ross says her decision is not etched in stone and conditions could change in the future.

Khadr's lawyer had argued that it wasn't fair that his client's life remains restricted by a stalled U.S. court process with no end in sight.

Khadr, who is 32, has been on bail since May 2015 pending appeal of his conviction by a U.S. military commission on alleged war crimes.

The appeal in the U.S. has stalled and Khadr has no idea of how long his bail conditions will last.

Khadr wanted to be able to travel to Toronto without the approval of his bail supervisor to visit his family more easily and to make court appearances related to a civil lawsuit he faces.

He also wanted unsupervised conversations with his sister and a Canadian passport so that he could make a pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. </s> The European Court of Human Rights ruled Thursday that Romania and Lithuania allowed the detention and abuse of a Saudi and a Palestinian at secret U.S. prisons.

The Strasbourg, France-based court said Thursday that Abd al-Rahim Al Nashiri, a Saudi national later sent to Guantanamo Bay, was detained and abused in Romania between Sept. 2003 and Oct. 2005, and urged Romania to investigate and punish perpetrators.

The court concluded that Al-Nashiri was blindfolded, hooded, shackled, kept in solitary confinement, and subjected to loud noise and bright light during his detention at the CIA prison in Romania.

Romania denies hosting such CIA facilities. There was no immediate reaction from the government.

The court said Al Nashiri and Zubaydah were both considered "high-value detainees" taken by the CIA at the start of the U.S.-led "war on terror."

Al Nashiri's lawyer, Amrit Singh, called the ruling "a sharp rebuke to Romania's shameful attempts" to conceal its hosting of a secret CIA prison.She was the lead lawyer on the case with the New York-based Open Society Justice Initiative.

Singh also noted the court's decision in light of the appointment of new CIA Director Gina Haspel, who supervised a covert detention site in Thailand where terror suspects, including al-Nashiri, were waterboarded, an interrogation technique that simulates drowning.

"The European court's ruling is critical for upholding standards of international law — that torture is absolutely prohibited and those involved in torture must be held to account," said Singh. "It stands in stark contrast to the United States' decision to promote Gina Haspel to CIA Director despite her role in my client's torture."

 

 The court also said that Lithuania hosted a secret CIA detention facility from February 2005 to March 2006 where Abu Zubaydah, a Palestinian suspected of being a planner for the Sept. 11 attacks, was detained.

It ruled that Lithuania allowed him to be moved to another CIA detention site in Afghanistan, "exposing him to further ill-treatment." He is currently detained at Guantanamo Bay and has not been charged.

Lithuanian authorities said they would consider appealing the court's decision and may also investigate the claims again.

Justice Minister Elvinas Jankevicius told reporters that "we will take a decision after carefully examining," the ruling. Vytautas Bakas, the chairman of the parliamentary committee for national security and defense, said he would propose opening a new probe.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, however, contradicted the justice minister and said in a statement that the small Baltic country's "reputation damage is done," adding that Lithuania "thus will have to execute a court judgment" and pay Zubaydah 130,000 euros ($152,000). She has regularly clashed with the Lithuanian government and forced a minister to resign after expressing her distrust.

Amnesty International called the rulings "a key milestone in holding European governments accountable for their involvement in illegal CIA activities in the aftermath" of the 9/11 attacks.

Roisin Pillay, director of the International Council of Jurists' Europe and Central Asia Program claimed that "many other European governments colluded with the U.S. to illegally transfer, `disappear' and torture people during rendition operations and must also be held accountable."

A 2009 investigation in Lithuania concluded that the country's intelligence agency helped the CIA set up two small detention centers there, but did not determine whether the facilities were actually used in the interrogation of terrorism suspects. </s> The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Romania and Lithuania allowed the detention and abuse of a Saudi and a Palestinian at secret US prisons.

The Strasbourg-based court said Abd al-Rahim Al Nashiri, a Saudi national later sent to Guantanamo Bay, was detained and abused in Romania between September 2003 and October 2005, and urged Romania to investigate and punish perpetrators.

The court said Lithuania hosted a secret CIA detention facility from February 2005 to March 2006 where Abu Zubaydah, a Palestinian suspected of being a planner for the September 11 attacks, was detained.

Al Nashiri’s lawyer Amrit Singh called the ruling “a sharp rebuke to Romania’s shameful attempts” to conceal its hosting of a secret CIA prison.
The Court of Appeal in Rabat, Morocco, acquits Younes Chekkouri of undermining the security of the state. Chekkouri was detained in Guantanamo Bay detention camp for 14 years without charges.