Guantánamo Detainee Abu Zubaydah Files UN Complaint Against US and Morocco for Arbitrary Detention

The complaint, which targets the United States and six other countries, will be filed (this) Friday with the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, an advisory group of independent experts, to ask it to intervene in his case, lawyer Helen Duffy said.

Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Hussein alias Abu Zubaydah, 50, was arrested in 2002 in Pakistan and handed over to the CIA. The latter suspected this Palestinian born in Saudi Arabia of having participated in the preparations for the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. As a result, he was incarcerated in several secret prisons. The first prisoner to be subjected to torture, he underwent 83 sessions of "waterboarding," these simulated drownings now prohibited by the United States, reports AFP. In 2003, he will be transferred to Guantánamo, without being indicted. Although the CIA has admitted that Abu Zubaydah is not affiliated with Al-Qaeda, he is still not released.

"His detention has no legal basis under international law and is an offense to all principles of respect for due process," his lawyer said in a statement. The detainee is demanding through his complaint his outright release by the United States. Abu Zubaydah calls on the six other countries - Great Britain, Thailand, Afghanistan, Lithuania, Poland and Morocco - who would be involved in his detention to take all measures to ensure his release, but also to grant him asylum.

"After 19 years of arbitrary detention, the only appropriate legal solution would be his release and rehabilitation," his lawyer insisted. The response from President Joe Biden’s administration "will test the commitments he has recently made in favor of the rule of law and human rights," added Helen Duffy.