Associated Press
by Samia Errazzouki
Morocco’s justice minister on Thursday defended the country’s decision to hold a former Guantanamo inmate behind bars for at least two months, dismissing claims of diplomatic assurances that he would be freed.
Lawyers for Younis Chekkouri say they were given promises from the U.S. State Department that he would not be held for more than 72 hours upon his return to Morocco from the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Moroccan Justice Minister Mustapha Ramid disputed this. “There was an agreement, but it did not include anything about his release,” he said.
Chekkouri was captured by Pakistani authorities in December 2001 and held in Guantanamo without charge for 13 years. He was released as part of a renewed push by President Barack Obama to release Guantanamo prisoners deemed to pose no threat.
Chekkouri has been held in a prison outside of Rabat since his transfer to the country on Sept. 16, also without charge. A judge on Wednesday ordered him to stay in custody pending a new hearing Dec. 3.
In response to a question from The Associated Press about the condition that Chekkouri would not be held for more than 72 hours, Ramid said, “Where are you getting this information? This is wrong.”
“Did the Americans consult with us when they held him all this time?” Ramid said with regard to Chekkouri’s time in Guantanamo. “They have their laws and matters, and we have our laws and our institutions.”
He would not comment on why Chekkouri is being held. The U.S. Justice Department had alleged that he had ties to the extremist Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, or GICM, but it later dropped that allegation.
Ramid and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch took part in an international judicial cooperation workshop in Rabat on Thursday. Lynch didn’t take questions from reporters.
U.S officials referred questions on the judicial process there to the Moroccan government.
The U.S. government remains interested in the matter and will continue its dialogue with the government of Morocco, said an official with the administration of President Barack Obama.
“Reprieve is making assumptions that he is being detained solely on the information provided by the United States government and that is something they simply don’t know,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic issues.
Cori Crider, lawyer for Chekkouri from rights group Reprieve, said, “Either U.S. State Department officials repeatedly deceived me and my client about Morocco’s true intentions when my client was in Guantánamo, or Morocco is a country that makes diplomatic promises freely and breaks them just as fast. Why isn’t this being made a major issue in U.S.-Moroccan relations now?”
