US Has Held Gitmo Detainees Incommunicado for Years Without Charge

Detainees at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have been held incommunicado for over a decade, defense attorneys told Sputnik following a pre-trial hearing for the accused planners of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States.

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE (Sputnik), Joanne Stocker — Guleed Hassan Dourad testified in front of the military court at Guantanamo Bay on Friday for one of the September 11 defendants, Ramzi bin al-Shibh. Another accused, Abu Zubaydah, was scheduled to testify on Friday, but did not appear in court.

"If you asked [Zubaydah] today, how many years, months and days he’s been in prison, he knows. He can tell you," bin al-Shibh’s lawyer James Harrington said on Thursday.

The US military commission has not charged either Guleed or Zubaydah with a crime or membership in a terrorist organization.

Zubaydah’s defense attorney Patrick Flor explained that his client has not walked without shackles for 14 years.

"[Zubaydah] will no longer be forgotten. People will see him as a person, as a human being who’s alive and who hasn’t been able to see the light of day for 14 years. That can only be a positive," Flor stated when asked if his client’s testifying for bin al-Shibh would help his own situation.

Moreover, Harrington explained that he was the first person Guleed had seen who was not part of the Guantanamo Bay detention center guard force or working for the US government since he was taken into US custody in 2004.

Earlier on Thursday, Guleed testified that he does not have access to a lawyer.