Prosecutor expects guilty plea in exchange for commutation of death sentences for dangerous prisoners
American researcher: Guantanamo Bay is a moral disgrace for the United States
Detainees praying inside their cells
Guantanamo will not close soon.
Getty
picture
Nearly 20 years after the United States began detaining suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, controversy still surrounds this notorious prison.
US academic analyst Dr. Paul Pillar says, in a report published by the American National Interest magazine, that the United States has failed miserably to act consistently in adjudicating the cases of men imprisoned in the detention center at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.
This was evident in the case of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and four others accused of aiding in that affair.
Extend the life of cases
According to Pilar, the seemingly endless delay prevented these men from being brought to trial before a military court.
Many of the delays involved the rotation of staff assigned to work as prosecutors, defense attorneys or judges.
As the case history grows, each new replacement takes more time to see and obtain full information on the case.
Other reasons for the delay included uncertainty about how to deal with evidence of torture to which prisoners were subjected, and finally the long vacation due to the "Covid-19" pandemic.
It has been more than 20 years since the crimes in question, and the trial appears to be still pending.
Even the most optimistic current estimates hold that the trial will begin no later than mid-2024. Such a permanent restriction of proceedings does not serve the interests of anyone, including the families of 9/11 victims and American citizens who just want to see justice served, Pillar said.
way out
In recent weeks, a possible way out of this impasse has emerged.
The prosecutor, who has been attached to the case through three management changes, is talking to the defense attorney for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other defendants about a possible guilty plea.
In exchange for an admission of guilt, defendants would be exempted from the death penalty, with more serious criminals such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed facing life imprisonment without parole instead.
Such a deal is by no means certain, says Pilar, but if such a deal were to be made, it would undoubtedly raise objections that nothing other than the death penalty would be severe enough for the heinous crime committed.
But given the endless series of delays, the alternative to a plea bargain is not a speedy trial that ends in death sentences.
Instead, the most likely alternative for the foreseeable future is further delay.
Thus, the biggest advantage of a plea bargain is the ending of the delay, and the resolution of the case.
Moreover, it is not clear, in this case, whether life imprisonment should be considered a lesser punishment than death.
In the circles from which these defendants come, “martyrdom” means something to them.
The death penalty is unfavorable globally
Indeed, for this reason, it is somewhat surprising that all of these defendants agreed to life imprisonment.
In any case, says Pilar, any "harmful effects" in the Middle East would be more likely, with this group executed rather than continued imprisonment, not to mention how the death penalty has become increasingly unfavorable globally. With the United States being one of a diminishing minority of countries, along with the likes of China, Iran and others, that continues to apply it.
Reports of a possible plea bargain point to an important condition: that the defendants insist on remaining at Guantanamo, where they can eat and pray together, rather than being sent to a place like Supermax Federal Prison in Florence, Colorado.
Unfortunately, this requires leaving a facility open that should never have been opened in the first place.
The administration of former President George W. Bush chose this naval base as the site of a detention facility in an effort to make it beyond the reach of any rule of law, although the Supreme Court later took a different view.
Guantanamo has long been a disgrace to the United States as a symbol of attempting to evade applicable criminal law, as well as a failure to enforce the law quickly.
vague thoughts
Guantanamo also represented vague ideas in Congress about waging a "war" on terrorism rather than using tried-and-true methods to prosecute and punish terrorists.
Pillar argues that had Khalid Sheikh Mohammed been tried in federal court in the Southern District of New York, a region of the deadliest part of the 9/11 attacks and a jurisdiction with an excellent track record of prosecuting terrorists, he would have been sentenced years ago, and if convicted, he would have He was executed or sent to Supermax Prison.
Even with this reservation about where the defendants will serve their sentences, a plea bargain such as the one said to be under discussion is still worthy of consideration.
It would be helpful if this were combined with understandings that no new prisoners would be sent to Guantanamo, that serious efforts would be made for the proper conduct of the other 33 men still held there, and that the detention facility would remain open only as long as the last person sentenced to life imprisonment remained there. Alive.
precedent
Years from now, that could mean the cost of maintaining something that looks like the current prison, but holds only a handful of prisoners.
There is a precedent for this, the Spandau prison in Berlin, which after the Nuremberg trials was supposed to house many convicted Nazis, but instead received only seven people.
During the last 21 years that the prison remained open, it held only one prisoner, Rudolf Hess, until he committed suicide at the age of 93 in 1987.
After Hess' death, Spandau Prison was promptly demolished, with the land becoming a car park and shopping centre.
The remains of the prison were crushed, either scattered at sea or buried at a British air base, in order to discourage anything that would become a neo-Nazi mausoleum.
Something like this should eventually also be done for the detention facility at Guantánamo, not to prevent any shrines, but instead to symbolically end an episode in US history involving a break from the rule of law.
• The United States has failed, miserably, to act consistently in adjudicating the cases of men imprisoned in the detention facility at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.
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