A former Guantanamo Bay detainee alleging he was tortured at the United States prison during his seven-year stint was denied the right to sue on Monday.
The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that Syrian Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak al Janko could not sue for the torture he experienced while held in U.S. custody due to the Military Commission Act (MCA). The court also blocked the release of images supposedly showing evidence of Janko's mistreatment, reported Reuters.
The judge ruled that because the U.S. suspected Janko of being a terrorist, even though it couldn't prove such suspicions, he doesn't have the right to sue for damages.
According to the MCA, "No court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained by the United States who has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination."
Janko was freed from Guantanamo in 2009 after a federal court agreed that he was wrongly detained. He launched a suit against the U.S. military in 2010, seeking damages for being tortured and suffering physical and psychological degradation from 2002 to 2009.
In 2000, before Janko was detained by U.S. forces, he had been imprisoned and tortured for 18 months by the then-Taliban-led Afghan government, who accused him of being a U.S. or Israeli spy, Common Dreams reported.
Janko's legal complaint continues:
Mr. Janko was liberated by U.S. forces in December 2001. He was one of five non-Afghan prisoners liberated who became known to journalists as the "Kandahar Five." He immediately offered his assistance to the United States as a material witness to human rights violations committed by the Taliban against U.S. citizens at the prison. Initially he was treated well by U.S. liberators and he cooperated fully with them.
In January 2002 former Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Mueller held a press conference. At the press conference they showed a photo of Mr. Janko taken from the videotape of his coerced confession at the hands of his Taliban captors. He was called an international terrorist even though there was no basis for this statement. This false accusation was broadcast to the world by Time Magazine and other media.
After this false accusation U.S. forces detained Mr. Janko and subjected him to torture and other forms of inhumane treatment apparently believing that he was connected with U.S. enemies. In May 2002 he was transported to Guantánamo Naval Base and he languished there for more than seven years in legal and psychological limbo. After the Supreme Court's decision in Rasul v. Bush (2004) allowed Janko to file a habeas corpus petition he did so. No action was taken on the petition until the Supreme Court's ruling in Boumediene v. Bush (2008). On June 22, 2009, District Judge Richard J. Leon found that Mr. Janko was not an "enemy combatant" and ordered his release from U.S. custody. He was released on October 7, 2009.
