'Lawyers seek order to release Kuwaiti at Guantanamo'

«WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lawyers for a Kuwaiti held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Tuesday asked the judge who ordered him freed to force the Obama administration to release him.

Last month, a U.S. district judge ordered the release of Fouad Al Rabiah, a Kuwaiti Airways engineer, and harshly criticized the U.S. government for using coerced confessions to justify detaining him indefinitely.

He was accused of providing money to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden during a July 2001 trip to Afghanistan and helping Taliban fighters in the mountainous Tora Bora region in the country during a subsequent October trip.

His lawyers said it was a case of mistaken identity and that Al Rabiah was in Afghanistan in October coordinating deliveries of aid supplies fromIran to refugees.

He has been at Guantanamo almost eight years.

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly granted his release after finding that he had only received two weeks of military training, which was required in Kuwait, and that he had a record of charity work with no ties to terrorism.

His attorney asked the judge to hold Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Rear Admiral Tom Copeman, the commander at Guantanamo, in contempt of court for not complying with her ruling and that she order he be released within 15 days.

They said he should have been flown home when another detainee was sent to Kuwait from Guantanamo last week.

U.S. officials "have made clear that they will do nothing to comply with Al Rabiah's release order unless and until they are forced to do so by the court," defense lawyer David Cynamon said in a court filing.

A Justice Department spokesman had no immediate comment.

The department told him it was holding Al Rabiah until it decided whether to appeal the court's original ruling, according to correspondence Cynamon filed with the court. He argued the administration could not use that as a reason to continue to hold him.»

Source: Reuters

@ http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE59C43U20091013

Lido este artigo, das 1001 coisas em que fico a pensar aquela que mais se repete é, sem sombra de dúvida, “(…) mistaken identity and that Al Rabiah was in Afganistan in Octoner coordinating deliveries of aid suplloes from Iran to refugess.” Um caso de erro de identidade que custou, até hoje, 8 anos da vida de uma pessoa.

Como este caso há outros, não importa se muitos se poucos, há!

Guantanamo espelha a ausência de justiça no seu mais absoluto e extremo estado.

A privação da liberdade, na sua natureza, medida extrema, ganha proporções incalculáveis de horror e de terror enquanto pena por crime não cometido, proporções agravadas pelo facto de não ter havido julgamento justo (ou por nem sequer o ter havido, uma vez que a ‘confissão’ o ‘dispensa’!), terem sido as “provas” obtidas por meios inadmissíveis (sob todos os pontos de vista possíveis e imaginários), para ‘agradar’, simplesmente para se mostrar que se ‘capturam’ os (ditos) terroristas, que tudo se faz em nome da “Liberdade”, da “Democracia”, da “Paz e da Segurança”…

Não percebo como não vêem que o que fazem, em todas as suas componentes e vertentes, é, por si só, o pior e o mais flagrante atentado a todos os valores e princípios que sustentam a, viva voz, defender.