About 100 Yemenis might be sent home once the US government surrenders to public pressure and court decisions incriminating it for holding the men illegally and closes the Guantanamo detention, said lawyers returning from a visit to the detention centre in Cuba.
The American lawyer David Remes, who represents 15 Yemen detainees, said the Yemeni government needs to give top priority to the issue of having the Yemenis released even if the detention is closed. "The Yemeni prisoners at Guantanamo will never be sent home unless President Saleh makes it a top priority to bring them home. Otherwise, there is no telling where the US will send the Yemenis when it closes Guantanamo," Remes said in exclusive statements sent to Gulf News at the end of his visit to the detention in Cuba early this week.
| They'll be sent to Ice Station Zebra, of course. Pack a sweater. |
Out of 107, only 12 Yemenis have been released during the period from mid-2004 to mid-2007. The last four men who arrived in Yemen, among them one of the clients of Remes, were released last June, but security authorities are still holding them in prison until now.
The Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said early this week that his government would spare no efforts to follow up the issue with the US government for sending the Yemenis home. The lawyer made it clear that the Bush administration wants to close down the detention before the Supreme Court listens to the lawyers' arguments late this year. "The government might even close Guantanamo before the Supreme Court hears argument from the lawyers in early December, and it will probably issue its decision between April and the end of June. That is the last thing the government wants, and I predict that the government will close the detention to avoid being required to do so," said Remes of the Covington and Burling law firm. "We believe that the Supreme Court will declare that the government has acted unlawfully in holding the men in Guantanamo and order the government to give the men a fair judicial hearing," he added.
The US government, the lawyer added, is also facing a bad decision from a lower federal court, which will put more pressure on the officials to close the detention. |