Arbitrary Justice

Trials of Guantánamo and Bagram Detainees in Afghanistan

Human Rights First conducted research for this report in January-February 2008 in Kabul, Afghanistan, and follow-up research from New York. Human Rights First interviewed family members of Guantánamo returnees, a Block D defendant, defense lawyers, Afghan government officials, including prosecutors and judges, and officials from the U.S. embassy in Kabul. Human Rights First also observed two trials and examined court documents.

Press Release

Executive Summary PDF | HTML
> In Dari
> In Pashto

Full Report (PDF -734KB)
> In Dari

Read New York Times 'Afghans Hold Secret Trials for Men That U.S. Detained'

Executive Summary

“I had goggles put over my eyes, I was handcuffed, and my legs were chained to the floor of the plane. The plane left Guantánamo and I arrived in Bagram. When we arrived, they took the goggles off and took my picture. I recognized that I was in Bagram, in Afghanistan. I had been here before. . . . The goggles were over my eyes again and we were taken to Pul-i-Charkhi. . . . I don’t know who greeted us but I heard Dari. We were taken inside. They took the goggles off. . . . I [then] saw ANA [Afghan National Army] soldiers.”

- Human Rights First interview
with Guantánamo returnee,
Kabul, January 30, 2008
(describing his August 2007
return from Guantánamo to
Afghanistan).

Blindfolded and handcuffed, detainees from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba and Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan are handed over by the United States to the Afghan government. After years of imprisonment without due process, the United States has concluded that their continued detention by United States authorities is no longer necessary. As the calls to close Guantánamo continue—including by U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Republican and Democratic presidential candidates—the transfer of detainees to their country of origin is not entirely without peril.[1] Since 2007, Afghans transferred by the United States to the Afghan government are being prosecuted based on allegations by the United States, but little evidence resulting in convictions for most in proceedings that fail to meet international or even Afghan fair trial standards.

At this writing, over 30 Afghans remain in Guantánamo, down from approximately 200 in 2002. Similar transfers to other countries have reduced Guantánamo’s overall prison population from over 750 at its peak to 280 today. But another 600 remain at the U.S. military’s Bagram Theater Internment Facility (BTIF) in Afghanistan. ... Read More