US releases Kenyan from Guantanamo bay after 17 years without trial

Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu. [File, Standard]

The United States of America has transferred a Kenyan from its military prison Guantanamo Bay back to the country.

The Department of Defense announced on Tuesday night (Kenyan time) that the detainee Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu had been handed to Kenya government after 17 years of holding him without trial.

DoD indicated that USA’s Periodic Review Board (PRB), which is composed of six US Federal agencies met three years ago and unanimously resolved to have him sent back to Kenya ‘upon certain security assurances.’

They concluded that he was not a security threat to USA.

“On December 27, 2021, the Periodic Review Board (PRB) process determined that continued law of war detention of Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu (ISN 10025) was no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the national security of the United States. The PRB recommended that Bajabu be transferred subject to appropriate security assurances,” the statement published on the Pentagon’s website read in part.

The number of prisoners at the facility based in Cuba now stands at 29.

A prisoners rights lobby, Reprieve, while reacting to the move stated that it was unfair to keep him for three more years despite acknowledging he was no longer a person of interest to them.

Its deputy Executive Director Dan Dolan stated that his transfer should have happened earlier.

“This transfer is long overdue, so we celebrate it with mixed emotions. We know from our Life After Guantánamo project that the mental scars of torture and indefinite detention can take many years to heal. The very least the US Government can do, having imprisoned Abdulmalik Bajabu without trial for 17 years, is ensure that this is truly an end to his ordeal and the beginning of a new life with his family,” he said..

Reprieve, in its statement sent to media houses said that Abdumalik’s family had promised to assist him pick up his life after almost two decades of incarceration.

“Abdulmalik’s sister, a successful businesswoman, is ready and willing to assist him with getting on his feet. His half-sister who lives in Mombasa has also promised to support him. His main aim is to provide for his wife and for his three daughters, as they continue their education,” the statement read in part.

His lawyer Frank Panopoulos claimed that American government had ‘stolen’ his better part of life. According to him, the alleged evidence against him was gathered through torture.

“Abdulmalik has been dreaming of this day for many years and we are overjoyed that he is finally back where he belongs, with his family in Kenya. The US robbed an innocent man of the best years of his life, separating him from his wife and young children when they most needed him.”

“His children, infants when he was tortured, interrogated and shipped to Guantánamo, are now grown. That debt can never be repaid, but the least the US can do is ensure that Abdulmalik receives the support and the space he needs to begin his life anew,” said Panopoulos.

Abdulmalik was born in Kisumu in 1973. He moved to Mombasa then in 1990s left for Somalia.

Reprieve claims that he was a fisherman at the Horn of Africa. According to the lobby, he came back to Kenya after Ethiopian forces attacked Somalia in 2006.

He was arrested the following year in February in Mombasa and handed to US authorities.

According to Reprieve, those who were to testify against him had recanted their evidence while Kenyan courts had acquitted those claimed to have allegedly plotted attacks alongside him.

“Much of the “evidence” against Abdulmalik was obtained through torture, including the testimony of a childhood friend who was tortured by Kenyan and Ethiopian police and has since recanted his statements. Kenyan courts have acquitted all five of Abdul-Malik’s supposed co-conspirators,” the lobby claimed.