Guantánamo torture case appealed to SCOTUS

Guantánamo torture case appealed to SCOTUS

Last Friday, CCR urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review our case seeking compensation for former Guantánamo prisoners who were tortured. Celikgogus v. Rumsfeld was filed against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other high-level government officials and Guantánamo personnel for authorizing and condoning torture. All of our clients were released without being charged with any crime, yet they were subjected to torture and other abuses, including solitary confinement, sleep deprivation, being prevented from praying, forcible shaving, and being medicated against their will. They continue to suffer the effects of this treatment years after being released; one is even immobilized. A district court dismissed the case in 2013, and the appellate court in 2014 affirmed the dismissal, claiming that the torture and religious humiliation these men endured were incidental to the “need to maintain an orderly detention environment.” The court also noted that this treatment appeared “standard for all” U.S. military detainees in Guantánamo, Iraq, and Afghanistan—as if the mere prevalence of torture justifies it. The Supreme Court has not heard a Guantánamo case since 2008, and to date none of those tortured at Guantánamo have been compensated for what they endured. Our pursuit of this case all the way to the highest court in the nation is emblematic of our longtime commitment to hold accountable, in whatever venue possible, those who created, designed and implemented U.S. torture – from Guantánamo to Abu Ghraib, CIA black sites, extraordinary renditions and elsewhere.