WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) released this statement on reports today that a plea agreement has been reached for three detainees at Guantánamo detention facility, who were accused of being behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks:

“Credit to the Biden administration for taking a huge step towards ending the hapless military commissions and ultimately closing Guantánamo.

“Everyone involved in the 9/11 case has been running on a hamster wheel of injustice since it was first charged 16 years ago. The case is still in pre-trial proceedings, and there’s no reason to believe it would ever make it to trial. That is largely because both the case specifically and the commissions generally are rotten to the core with the effects of torture. In particular, the government’s best evidence was obtained either directly under torture, or from the defendants while they were suffering the effects of their torture. In other words, the case is built on quicksand.

“This is why there have been so many voices who have called for plea agreements to end the commissions – from former Bush administration Solicitor General Ted Olson, to Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), to both prosecutors and defense counsel in the 9/11 case, to children and grandchildren of mothers and grandparents killed on 9/11. Pleas almost certainly aren’t the solution that any of them may have wanted in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, but they’re now the only path left to some measure of justice and finality, and – through the sentencing process – the only way for victim family members to get answers to questions that they have so far been denied.

“The Biden administration needs to build on the momentum of this crucial accomplishment by quickly transferring the men who haven’t been charged with a crime. Closing Guantánamo is in sight, and for President Biden, a legacy achievement within reach.” -Scott Roehm, CVT director of global policy and advocacy

-###-

The Center for Victims of Torture is a nonprofit organization with offices in Ethiopia, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Uganda, United States and additional project sites around the world. Visit www.cvt.org