Al-Qaeda commander at Guantánamo Bay convicted of war crimes

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — A former Qaeda battlefield commander who admitted his insurgents killed 17 U.S. and allied forces in wartime Afghanistan in the early 2000s will spend eight more years in prison under a Plea deal revealed Thursday.

The prisoner, Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, 63, has been detained in the United States since 2006 and made the deal two years ago. Military judge Col. Charles L. Pritchard Jr. formally unveiled conditions at Guantánamo Bay moments after a military jury ordered Hadi to serve 30 years in prison, the maximum sentence in his war crimes case .

The result was part of the mysterious system called military commissions, which allows prisoners to reach plea deals with a senior Pentagon official who oversees the war court, but which anyway requires the formality of a determination hearing. sentencing before a jury.

The 11-officer jury rejected arguments by Hadi's defense attorney that the prisoner deserved leniency, or even leniency, for his early humiliations while in CIA custody, his later cooperation with American investigators and his failing state of health.

“Justice was served today,” said Bill Eggers, whose son, Capt. Daniel Eggers, 28, was killed in a bombing by Hadi's fighters. Eggers, who has been attending proceedings in the case since 2017, said he considered the jury's decision to give Hadi the harshest sentence possible a fair conclusion, despite the reduced plea deal.

Eggers and his daughter were among six people who testified last week about their loss during the two-week sentencing trial.

Hadi looked stoic as the sentence was announced. Unlike the jury, he was aware of the agreement that reduced his sentence to 10 years, effective from his guilty plea in June 2022. He is handicapped by a crippling spinal disease and a series of surgeries to Guantanamo. chair, listening through headphones providing Arabic translation.

It was an unusual case before the court, created to prosecute terrorism cases as war crimes after the Sept. 11 attacks. Although prosecutors portrayed Hadi as a member of Qaeda's inner circle before these attacks, nothing in his plea agreement suggests he knew of the plot in advance.

Instead, he admitted to being the commander of insurgent forces that illegally used cover for civilians in attacks that killed 17 members of U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004 – for example, by pass a fighter as an ordinary driver in a taxi loaded with explosives.

He also admitted to serving as a liaison between Qaeda and the Taliban before the September 11 attacks and to providing part of his forces to help blow up monumental Buddha statues in Afghanistan's Bamiyan Valley, a listed site. UNESCO World Heritage Site, in March 2001.

The prisoner, who says his real name is Nashwan al-Tamir, was captured in Turkey in 2006 and held incommunicado for about six months by the CIA. By law, he was not entitled to credit for that time or for the 15 years and eight months he spent in U.S. custody before his guilty plea in 2022. If he were to be released in June 2032, as part of this agreement, he would have been held for more than 25 years as a prisoner in the United States.

But Hadi's future is uncertain. War tribunal prosecutors have argued that a prisoner can be held at Guantanamo even after their sentence is over as long as the war on terrorism continues. Alternatively, under the terms of the agreement, the United States could transfer him to the custody of a partner country, if one is found that is capable of providing specialized health care and agrees to monitor his activities.

Members of his defense team, which included attorneys from the Army, Air Force and Navy, appeared dejected as the sentence was announced.

“He expressed remorse,” said Susan Hensler, a civil attorney who led the team. “He understands the seriousness of what he pleaded guilty to, but he is counting on the United States to keep its promise to transfer him to a partner country with a health care infrastructure to care for him. »