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Severely tortured Guantánamo detainee makes case for freedom at board hearing
Source: The Guardian
Severely tortured Guantánamo detainee makes case for freedom at board hearing
Mohamedou Slahi, author of bestselling memoir Guantánamo Diary,
contends he would reunite with his children and write books if released
after 14 years
Spencer Ackerman in Washington
Thursday 2 June 2016 16.36 BST
One of the most severely tortured men in the history of Guantánamo Bay presented his case for freedom on Thursday.
Held at Guantánamo without charge since August 2002, Mohamedou Ould Slahi endured beatings, death threats, sexual humiliation and rape threats against his mother by US personnel at the wartime prison.
Yet Slahi, an unlikely bestselling author after his 2015 memoir, Guantánamo Diary, made him the highest-profile detainee unconnected to the 9/11 plot, contends that he seeks only to reunite with his children, start a small business and write books in his post-Guantánamo life – and would even welcome his old guards over for a cup of tea.
In a 17-minute public hearing that served as the Guantánamo equivalent of a parole board, Slahi, clean shaven and bald in a white jumpsuit, barely moved. His military representatives and attorneys argued that the Mauritanian citizen poses no threat to the US. Slahi occasionally stroked his forearms, his only gesture of active participation in a process that poses his best chance for release.
“Despite all the US government has done to him, Mohamedou has made clear that he holds no grudge against anyone at Guantánamo,” one of his attorneys, Theresa Duncan, told the board.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Mohamedou Slahi, author of bestselling memoir Guantánamo Diary,
contends he would reunite with his children and write books if released
after 14 years
Spencer Ackerman in Washington
Thursday 2 June 2016 16.36 BST
One of the most severely tortured men in the history of Guantánamo Bay presented his case for freedom on Thursday.
Held at Guantánamo without charge since August 2002, Mohamedou Ould Slahi endured beatings, death threats, sexual humiliation and rape threats against his mother by US personnel at the wartime prison.
Yet Slahi, an unlikely bestselling author after his 2015 memoir, Guantánamo Diary, made him the highest-profile detainee unconnected to the 9/11 plot, contends that he seeks only to reunite with his children, start a small business and write books in his post-Guantánamo life – and would even welcome his old guards over for a cup of tea.
In a 17-minute public hearing that served as the Guantánamo equivalent of a parole board, Slahi, clean shaven and bald in a white jumpsuit, barely moved. His military representatives and attorneys argued that the Mauritanian citizen poses no threat to the US. Slahi occasionally stroked his forearms, his only gesture of active participation in a process that poses his best chance for release.
“Despite all the US government has done to him, Mohamedou has made clear that he holds no grudge against anyone at Guantánamo,” one of his attorneys, Theresa Duncan, told the board.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/02/guantanamo-bay-hearing-mohamedou-slahi-diary
