On a meager strip of land at the US naval base in southeastern Cuba, concrete walls topped with barbed wire hide the Guantánamo Bay prison. As solid as when the prison was inaugurated in January 2002, following the September 11 attacks, its doors have just opened, freeing two Pakistanis, imprisoned for more than twenty years.
► Who are they? Why were they at Guantánamo?
The two men are brothers. The eldest, Abdul Rabbani, is 55 years old, his youngest, Mohammed, is 53 years old. According to US intelligence, they lived in Karachi and worked part-time as taxi drivers.
Abdul Rabbani was accused of working for the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and of managing safe houses in Karachi where suspected al-Qaeda operatives holed up after the attacks on twin towers.
Mohammed Rabbani has been accused of recruiting his eldest from extremist circles and managing the travels and finances of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abd Al Rahim Al Nashiri, considered the mastermind of the attacks on the French oil cargo ship Limburg in 2002 and the American ship USS Colein Yemen in 2000. Mohammed Rabbani is one of 17 detainees recognized by a US Senate report as having been subjected to torture in clandestine CIA sites.
Abdul and Mohammed Rabbani were arrested in September 2002 by the Pakistani authorities before being handed over to the Americans. Arriving at Guantánamo in 2004, after being held in a CIA-run detention center in Afghanistan for nearly 550 days, they were never tried or charged.
In 2013, Mohammed Rabbani began a hunger strike that lasted seven years. He survived on nutritional supplements that were sometimes given to him by force. He also distinguished himself by his prolific production of more than a hundred paintings. And the Pentagon has partially lifted the Trump administration’s ban on distributing artwork made by Guantánamo prisoners.
The two brothers were transferred to Pakistan by plane on Thursday, February 23, following the negotiation in 2021 of a repatriation agreement with the Pakistani authorities.
► How many prisoners are still being held at Guantánamo?
Since 2002, 780 detainees have been incarcerated at Guantánamo. In 2003, the US military held up to 675 prisoners there. They are now only 32 – including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, imprisoned since 2006 – all arrived under the administration of President George W. Bush.
Eleven are accused of war crimes, ten are awaiting trial, three are detained indefinitely, under a special law, without being charged by a court. Two were found guilty, only one was sentenced. The other 18 have a provisional favorable opinion of release or transfer if the United States reaches an agreement with a country willing to welcome them.
► What future for the prison?
On January 22, 2009, Barack Obama issued a decree ordering the closure of detention operations within one year. He also suspended the judicial hearings and decided to examine the status of the 240 remaining prisoners. On May 5, 2012, Congress voted against closing Guantánamo. In January 2017, the Trump administration rescinded the Obama executive order.
Since taking office in January 2021, President Joe Biden has also said he wants the prison closed before the end of his term. On July 19, 2021, his administration carried out its first prisoner transfer. In total, with the two Rabbani brothers, the Biden administration will have returned five prisoners to their country, one of whom was released at the beginning of February. But the closure is struggling to materialize.
Guantanamo is considered an indelible stain in American history, decried for its repeated violations of human rights and international law. In January 2022, the UN called for the military prison to be closed. From February 6 to 14, for the first time, a UN representative, Irish Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, was allowed to enter the prison to “a technical visit”.