Guantanamo Detainee Seeks Dismissal Of Charges, Cites Torture
By Chad Bray, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Lawyers for the first detainee from Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba, to face prosecution in the U.S. asked a federal judge on Tuesday to
dismiss the criminal charges against him, saying his lengthy detention overseas
and the use of interrogation techniques "amounting to torture" violated his
constitutional rights.
In a motion Tuesday, lawyers for Ahmed Ghailani said the U.S. government made
a "conscious and deliberate" decision to house him for two years at secret
Central Intelligence Agency "black sites" and subject him to so-called "enhanced
interrogation techniques" in an effort to make him an intelligence asset, rather
than bring him to the U.S. in a timely manner to face trial.
That decision violated his due process rights and right to a speedy trial
under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, his lawyers Peter
Quijano, Michael Bachrach and Gregory E. Cooper wrote.
"This was a deliberate decision by the government to gain the tactical
advantage of having direct access to Mr. Ghailani in order to obtain
information, unobstructed by counsel or a panoply of rights and Constitutionally
mandated protections," his lawyers said.
Ghailani, a Tanzanian national, has been charged in connection with the
bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania in August 1998. Ghailani, who was
indicted in December 1998, has been in U.S. custody since July 2004 and held at
Guantanamo Bay since September 2006.
The publicly filed version of the motion includes several sections and pages
that are blacked out for national security reasons, including sections that
appear to describe the interrogation techniques used against him. Ghailani's
lawyers described the techniques used against him as "torture, plain and
simple."
"Indeed, it is not merely the individual interrogation techniques that were
employed that is so chilling, but the stark realization of the extent to which
they were planned, coordinated, systematized and authorized by the highest ranks
of our nation's leadership," his lawyers said. Citing draft guidelines for
detainee interrogations, his lawyers said so-called "enhanced measures" can
include sleep deprivation, cramped confinement and water-boarding.
In court documents, Quijano said Ghailani "is so emotionally and
psychologically damaged as a result of being subjected to the CIA program, that
he still manifests 'learned helplessness' to the point that it affects his
ability to assist in his defense."
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan declined to comment
Tuesday.
Ghailani faces charges of conspiracy, murder, bombing of a U.S. Embassy, use
and attempted use of weapons of mass destruction against U.S. nationals, and
other charges under a superseding indictment originally issued in 2001.
Several of the counts carry a mandatory life sentence or the death penalty.
However, prosecutors have said they don't plan to seek the death penalty against
Ghailani.
Separate military commission charges against Ghailani were withdrawn before he
was transferred to New York.
The U.S. Department of Justice recently announced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,
the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and four others
charged in the plot will be tried in civilian courts in New York in June. They
also had been held at Guantanamo Bay.
The move is part of an effort by President Barrack Obama to close the prison
for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay.
-By Chad Bray, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-227-2017; chad.bray@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
12-01-091942ET
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