Obama Administration Accused of Ignoring Geneva Conventions in Refusal to Release 74-Pound Guantánam
Obama Administration Accused of Ignoring Geneva Conventions in Refusal to Release 74-Pound Guantánamo Detainee
Jenna McLaughlin
Sep. 11 2015, 4:33 p.m.
The government is skirting the Geneva Conventions and other international human rights standards by refusing to immediately release Tariq Ba Odah, a Yemeni Guantánamo detainee suffering from severe malnutrition and deterioration following an eight-year hunger strike, the Center for Constitutional Rights argued in a legal brief filed on Friday.
Ba Odah has been held at Guantánamo since 2002. He has never been charged with a crime. He began a peaceful hunger strike in 2007, and in 2009 he was cleared for release — as soon as Yemen became more stable or the government could find someplace else for him to go.
He is still waiting, now down to 74 pounds — a “chronic, life-threatening and potentially irreversible” condition, according to his lawyers.
Ba Odah’s petition to be released due to his failing and irreversible health condition revolves around two statutes: Article 110 of the Third Geneva Convention, and Section 3-12 of Army Regulations 190-8. The Geneva Convention mandates that prisoners of war be repatriated to their own country if their physical or mental condition is “gravely diminished” and is not likely to recover in one year. The Army regulations clause controls the repatriation of sick or wounded enemy prisoners of war, requiring a neutral doctor and direct repatriation in cases of serious injury or illness.
More:
https://theintercept.com/2015/09/11/obama-administration-accused-ignoring-geneva-convention-refusal-release-74-pound-guantanamo-detainee/
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