The Pentagon confirmed Thursday that it transferred a Guantanamo Bay prisoner to Morocco this week, however, the detainee’s legal team said it has no knowledge of his whereabouts and believes he is being illegally held captive.
UK human rights group, Reprieve, released a statement expressing concern about their client, Younous Chekkouri, a Moroccan national who had been imprisoned at the US military facility in Cuba for 14 years until his Wednesday transfer.
“[We] have been unable to meet or speak to him since the US handed him to Moroccan authorities,” the group said, alleging that Chekkouri is “being held in an unknown location, and has not been allowed so far to contact his local lawyer, in apparent violation of Moroccan law.” The London-based group represents eight Gitmo detainees.
Navy Cmdr. Gary Ross told the Miami Herald that the Pentagon “coordinated with the Government of Morocco to ensure this transfer took place consistent with appropriate security and humane treatment measures.” He also thanked the Moroccan government “for its willingness to support ongoing US efforts to close the Guantánamo Bay detention facility.”
As reporter Carol Rosenberg noted, however, Chekkouri had feared returning to his home country believing he may face persecution over suspected past anti-government affiliations.
The Pentagon claimed he went back voluntarily.
Chekkouri’s lawyer, and Reprieve’s strategic director, Cori Crider on Thursday criticized Moroccan authorities for their role in his imprisonment.
“There is no reason for the Moroccan authorities to prolong Younous’ detention after all he has suffered over 14 years,” she said. “He must be permitted to see his lawyers and his family without further delay.”
Captured by Pakistani troops in 2001 and handed over to the US military the following year as a suspected foreign fighter, Chekkouri, like most of the individuals imprisoned at Guantanamo, was never charged with a crime. He was first cleared for released in 2009.
Chekkouri participated in the hunger strikes that drew renewed international attention to the facility in 2013.
His transfer brought the total number of detainees still at Gitmo down to 115. Fifty-two are cleared for release.
Pentagon teams in recent weeks have been reviewing sites in the continental US as possible alternatives to the military prison, which President Obama first promised to shutdown when he was a senator and presidential candidate.
