Emergency Protest at Algerian Embassy in DC for Cleared Gitmo Prisoner Forced Back to Algeria, Now Detained


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 9, 2013


Contact: Noor Mir, CODEPINK Organizer, 845-625-3725, noor@codepink.org

  Alli McCracken, CODEPINK Organizer, 860-575-5692, alli@codepink.org


Emergency Protest at Algerian Embassy in DC for Cleared Gitmo Prisoner Forced Back to Algeria, Now Detained


What: Emergency Protest at Algerian Embassy for Release of Guantánamo prisoner Djamel Ameziane, hosted by CODEPINK, Witness Against Torture, Center for Constitutional Rights

When: 2-3 pm, Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Where: Algerian Embassy, 2118 Kalorama Rd NW, Washington, DC


Washington, DC –– Human rights organizations CODEPINK, Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and Witness Against Torture (WAT) will hold an emergency protest outside the Algerian Embassy to demand the immediate release of CCR client Djamel Ameziane. On the day celebrated as International Human Rights Day, the coalition of groups is calling upon the US and Algerian governments to respect the human rights of Ameziane, who was callously transferred against his will to the one place he dreaded more than Guantánamo. This move is in violation of international law, including the Convention Against Torture.


Ameziane had been imprisoned at Guantánamo without charge since 2002 and cleared for release since 2008. While at Guantánamo, Ameziane suffered immensely from abuse and solitary confinement. On December 5th of this year, he was forcibly transferred from Guantánamo to Algeria, where he is currently being held in secret detention. Despite viable resettlement opportunities in offers of asylum from Luxembourg and other countries, the U.S. government chose to send him into a dangerous situation without any explanation where he fears persecution.


Ameziane's decade-long imprisonment at Guantánamo for over a decade and unexplained and forceful involuntary transfer into secret detention will be challenged by peace groups that are determined that to have this innocent man sees justice. “We demand that the Algerian Government immediately release Djamel Ameziane from secret detention, treat him humanely, and respect his human rights,” said Ameziane's CCR attorney J. Wells Dixon. “We further call on the international community to demand transparency and accountability from the Algerian government and to ensure that Mr. Ameziane does not suffer persecution now or in the future.”


“We have to act before it's too late. Mr. Ameziane has already suffered enough at the hands of the U.S.government at Guantánamo Bay prison. He's been through more than ten years of injustice, and we can't let it happen again,” commented Noor Mir, an organizer with the peace group CODEPINK.



###