Updated 16 January 2021 at 19:09 IST
Pentagon moves to block independent medical examination of Guantanamo prisoner
The Department of Defence has blocked every effort to conduct an independent medical review of Guantanamo prisoners for the last 20 years.
The outgoing Secretary of Army Ryan McCarthy has reportedly excluded Guantanamo Bay prisoners from the regulation that became the basis of a US federal court order demanding medical examination of a detainee at the prison. According to The New York Times, the US Department of Justice on Friday informed a District Court in Washington that McCarthy has moved to block the examination of Guantanamo prisoners, signing a two-page memorandum on January 11. Medical review of Guantanamo detainees has not been conducted since the prison opened in 2002.
The Department of Defence has blocked every effort to conduct an independent medical review at Guantanamo for the last 20 years. However, the lawyer of Mohammed al-Qahtani had secured an order from a US federal court in March that allowed an independent medical review of the prisoner, who is allegedly suffering from schizophrenia. Judge Rosemary Collyer, hearing the case, pronounced that al-Qahtani should be examined by three doctors, two foreign and one US Army professional, to determine whether he should be repatriated to his home country Saudi Arabia for treatment at a psychiatric facility.
'Last-ditch effort'
After Judge Collyer retired, another judge who came in her place upheld the order. The US government then moved to an appeals court, which rejected the Trump administration's request to delay the examination. The US government was then left with two choices, either allow the first-ever outside medical examination of a Guantanamo prisoner or voluntarily release Qahtani to avoid independent review.
Qahtani's lawyer has called the move by McCarthy "a last-ditch effort" to deny an independent review of Guantanamo prisoners. The lawyer said that they lost the case because of the rule so they changed it, adding that if a medical examination is allowed his client will surely be repatriated to his home country because of his mental illness.
According to the report, Qahtani was captured months after the September 11 attacks in the United States, which was claimed by Osama bin-Laden's Al-Qaeda. Qahtani was arrested near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and was taken to Guantanamo Bay prison, where he was subjected to intense torture, including waterboarding and sleep deprivation. Qahtani was arrested over suspicion that he had expressed a desire of joining the 20 hijackers in carrying out the 9/11 attacks. Qahtani is one of the 40 prisoners currently detained in Guantanamo Bay prison.
Published By : Vishal Tiwari
Published On: 16 January 2021 at 19:09 IST