I was held in Guantanamo detention centre for 14 years without ever being charged with a crime. I was sent there when I was 19. I didn’t know why I was being held, what I had done to be imprisoned, or when I would be released.Like many of the other men at Guantanamo, I believed that the United States forces who held me would live up to their own ideals of law and justice and grant me the right to defend myself and prove my innocence. That never happened.
Instead, I was subjected to torture and continual harassment. I fought to be treated humanely and to be granted basic human rights, and after 14 years was released. Throughout my imprisonment, I imagined that one day the world would learn what happened to us and would demand accountability and justice. I thought once people knew, they would close this deplorable place.
It has been almost nine years since I was released. All this time, I have not stopped writing and giving interviews about what happened to me. The world knows, and yet, Guantanamo is still functioning. Advertisement
Earlier this month, we marked the 23rd anniversary of its creation. Today we mark the last day in office of yet another US president who promised to close it and did not. One has to wonder after all the reports by the United Nations and various human rights organisations, me …
