On March 22, 2010, U.S. District Judge James Robertson,
US District Court for the District of Columbia,
ordered the release of Guantanamo Bay prisoner
Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a Mauritanian
who has been in US custody since November 2001.
Last year, the Federal Court of Canada dismissed an application by Slahi requesting access to records of interrogations conducted by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) both in Canada and at Guantanamo Bay.
(See details on the case and Slahi's hand written letter to his lawyer dated Nov 9, 2006 at:
The University of California Davis Center for the Study of Human Rights in the AmericasCSHRA) - http://humanrights.ucdavis.edu/projects/the-guantanamo-testimonials-project/testimonies/prisoner-testimonies/slahi_letter.pdf )
He had been accused of planning the 9/11 terrorist attacks and of being a key al Qaeda leader. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty against him.
On September 2009, Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Couch, the American government prosecutor set on convicting Mohamedou Ould Slahi, stepped down from the case after getting access to details of Slahi's treatment at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay.
"Duty vs. Conscience at Gitmo" - PBS NOW - 09/04/2009
Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Couch said:
("I felt like what had been done to Slahi just reprehensible. For that reason alone, I refused to have any further participation in this case."
Slahi had sought the release of Canadian records of interrogations conducted by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) both in Canada and at Guantanamo Bay, to corroborate his allegations of torture at Guantanamo Bay as part of his ongoing habeas corpus petition.
The judge's decision is currently classified, although the court suggested that the files will become available at a future date.
Sources:
Miami Herald - March 22, 2010
"Detainee abused at Guantanamo orderd freed"- by Carol Rosemberg
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/22/1542227/detainee-abused-at-guantanamo.html
CSIS and RCMP interrogation in Canada and at Guantanamo at:
JURIST Legal News & Research - Tuesday, March 23, 2010
"Federal judge orders release of Guantanamo detainee accused in 9/11 attacks" - Andrea Bottorff (retrieved March 23, 2010)
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2010/03/federal-judge-orders-release-of.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+pitt%2FvLdl+%28JURIST+-+Paper+Chase+[full]%29
AND
JURIST Legal News & Research - February 17, 2009
"Canada court rejects Guantanamo detainees' bid to access intelligence records"
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2009/02/canada-court-rejects-guantanamo.php
