An Iraqi man convicted of commanding insurgents who committed war crimes in Afghanistan filed a lawsuit in federal court Friday seeking to stop his transfer from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay to a prison in Iraq.
In the application submitted by his lawyers, public negotiations for the transfer have been held for some time. Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi63 remains in Iraqi government custody, despite protests from him and his lawyers that he may be subject to abuse and inadequate medical care.
Mr. Hadi, whose real name is Nashwan al-Tamir, is the oldest and most disabled detainee held at the offshore prison after suffering from spinal paralysis and six surgeries at the base. in 2022 he confessed his guilt On the charge of war crimes, taking responsibility for the actions of some subordinate forces, by treaty his sentence ends in 2032. The agreement included the possibility that he would serve his sentence in the custody of another country better suited to provide him with medical care.
His lawyers said the U.S. plan was for the Iraqi government to house him in the Karkh prison outside Baghdad, the former site of a detention operation called Camp Cropper that held hundreds of prisoners in the years before the U.S. returned to Iraqi control in 2010.
“Due to his conviction here and the myriad problems in Iraq's prison system, Mr. al-Tamir cannot be safely housed in an Iraqi prison,” the lawyers said in their 27-page filing. “Furthermore, he does not believe that the Iraqi government would be able to provide the medical care he needs while at Guantanamo, aggravated by inadequate medical care.”
The lawsuit seeks to block the deal, which is part of the Biden administration's efforts to reduce the prison population before President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office. Including four prisoners two Malaysian men Those found guilty of war crimes, such as Mr. Hadi, were repatriated in less than a month. Unlike Mr. Hadi, none of those four men, including a tunisian citizen and A Kenya citizens, opposed the surrender to their homeland.
It is not known when the Pentagon intends to deliver Mr. Hadi to Iraq. However, the Defense Department notified Congress of the plan on December 13. He could be taken out of Guantanamo on Jan. 12 if the administration meets the legal requirement to notify Congress 30 days in advance.
Government lawyers have agreed to speed up the case. They told U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that they wanted to respond to a question about the preliminary injunction by Wednesday.
Spokesmen for the State and Justice Departments declined to discuss the case.
Mr. Hadi was represented in the filing by Utah federal public defenders Benjamin C. McMurray and Scott K. Wilson. Susan Hensler, a lawyer who has been working at the Department of Defense since 2017, also signed the document.
Lawyers a 2023 State Department report It cited concerns about human rights violations in Iraq, specifically “harsh and life-threatening prison conditions.” They asked the court to impose a temporary ban on his transfer while the case is being discussed. “Permanent harm justifies a preliminary injunction against Mr. al-Tamir's immediate transfer to an Iraqi prison to serve his sentence.”
Mr. Hadi was born in 1961 in Mosul, Iraq. He fled Iraq in 1990 to avoid being drafted into Saddam Hussein's army during the first US invasion of Iraq and later settled in Afghanistan. In 2003 and 2004, at the beginning of the US invasion, Taliban and Qaeda forces under his command illegally used the cover of civilians in attacks in Afghanistan that killed 17 US and coalition forces. His forces had a warrior pose, such as a taxi driver in a taxi full of explosives.
At Guantanamo, he relies on a wheelchair and a four-wheel walker and has been held for years in a cell equipped with handicapped accommodations.
His lawyers said in their filing that US officials informed them of the plan to repatriate Mr. Hadi “a week before Christmas” and added that “government officials told defense counsel that they concluded Iraq was the 'only' option.”
Both the detainee and lawyers objected to the transfer, the filing said, based on the U.S.'s obligation under international and constitutional law not to send someone to a country where they could face violence.
Scott Roehm of the Center for Victims of Torture, an advocacy group, said, “Senior State Department officials previously determined that Mr. al-Tamir could not be sent to an Iraqi prison without violating the prohibition on torture. “
“The State Department's human rights reports consistent with this decision show that there are serious human rights violations, including torture, in Iraqi prisons.” “If the government now has a different view, it should explain why by making its analysis public.”