📽EXPOSED: The UAE hired US mercenaries in a secret assassination programme in Southern Yemen which killed scores of people with no association with terrorist groups.

Our investigation with the BBC poses tough questions for US authorities, says Reprieve’s Baraa Shiban 🧵 Reprieve investigators and BBC reporters uncovered that the UAE paid Spear Operations Group millions of dollars to carry out assassinations and train ‘counter-terrorism forces’ operated by the UAE’s proxy in southern Yemen, the Southern Transitional Council.

BREAKING 🚨: Ahmed Rabbani has been released from #Guantánamo Bay after more than 20 years of detention without trial.

Thanks to many of you in this community, Ahmed is finally on his way to meet his son for the first time.

A THREAD 🧵 1/6 In 2002, Ahmed was mistakenly arrested as a wanted extremist and sold to the US. The CIA soon discovered they had the wrong man but tortured him anyway - for 545 days - and sent him to #Guantánamo.

Ahmed was never charged with a crime, and he never had a trial. 2/2

If you remember anything about Shamima Begum today let it be this: being a child victim of human trafficking doesn’t mean that the Home Secretary cannot strip you of your citizenship.

1/ Shamima Begum was groomed online in the UK as a child and taken into Syria by a Canadian intelligence asset. She should be protected as a trafficked British teenager would be in any other context.

2/

🚨BREAKING: Judges have found that Shamima Begum was likely a victim of trafficking, groomed and transported by ISIS when she was a child. But that despite this, the Home Secretary didn't break the law when he stripped her citizenship. A 🧵on this decision and what it means. Shamima Begum was stripped of citizenship in February 2019. Trafficked at 15, she received the news while imprisoned in North-East Syria. She had seen her two children die and would soon lose a third. Then Home Secretary Sajid Javid claimed she was a threat to national security.

Last night in Alabama, a third execution in a row went terribly wrong. Prison staff strapped Kenneth Smith to a stretcher and stabbed him with needles for an hour before calling the execution off. This is torture. And it’s happening again and again 🧵 In July, officials took three hours to execute Joe James Jr, behind closed doors.

In August, Alan Miller’s execution was called off after 90 minutes of agony.

In both instances, staff struggled to set an intravenous line, causing prolonged suffering for the condemned man.

🚨 BREAKING: The National Security Bill – introduced by Boris Johnson’s Government in Summer – is returning to the House of Commons for Report Stage. This means MPs can scrutinise the Bill and call for changes. secure.reprieve.org/page/116029/ac…

Here’s why this Bill is bad news 🧵
1/ Clause 27 could allow UK Ministers to get away with enabling human rights abuses overseas, such as by providing tip-offs that lead to torture and murder.

Clauses 79-83 could prevent victims of torture from getting justice if the UK played a role in their treatment.

3/

🚨BREAKING: Oldest Guantánamo detainee released after almost 20 years detained without charge or trial.

This is a huge win but Saifullah Paracha, 75, returns to his family a frail old man, after being taken in the prime of his life. That injustice can never be rectified. 🧵 Thank you to everyone who helped campaign for Saifullah’s release.

He once described life at Guantánamo as “being alive in your own grave”.

US embrace of indefinite detention without trial has done lasting damage. We can only begin to repair it when we #CloseGuantánamo

🚨BREAKING: The House of Lords has voted to remove clause 9 of the Nationality and Borders Bill, which seeks to create new powers to strip British nationals of their citizenship without even telling them.

This is a huge win. 1/3 MPs must follow suit and strike this discriminatory provision from the Bill.

Citizenship stripping disproportionately affects ethnic minority British communities, who are made to feel like second class citizens. 2/3

🚨A young man with an intellectual disability could be imminently executed in Singapore.🚨

With just 48 hours until his hearing, here’s everything you need to know. >>>

A THREAD 🧵 reprieve.org/uk/nagaenthran… #SaveNagaenthran
1/ Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, called Nagen by his family, has intellectual disabilities. He heartbreakingly doesn't fully understand he could be executed in just a matter of days.

He was just 21 years old when a drug trafficker tricked him into smuggling drugs into Singapore.

2/

🚨BREAKING: A US court has ruled that our client Asadullah Haroon Gul’s imprisonment in Guantánamo is unlawful.

In this landmark ruling, Asadullah has become the first Guantánamo detainee in 10 years to win a habeas corpus case. 🧵 1/4 reprieve.org/uk/2021/10/20/… Asadullah, who has been detained for 14 years without charge or trial, missed his daughter’s entire childhood and has suffered physical and psychological torture.

The court has confirmed what we have long known: he should be home with his family. His detention is unlawful. 2/4

WIN: In a major u-turn, the Government has now announced it will exclude war crimes from the Overseas Operations Bill’s block on prosecutions. This follows a separate concession last week excluding acts of torture 1/ The Reprieve community has been campaigning for this for months alongside @FreeFromTorture, @redresstrust, @libertyhq, @AmnestyUK and @cmjhq. Today’s concession ensures offences like inhuman treatment and unlawful killing can still be prosecuted 2/

ICYMI: November 16 “the [US] government asserted that it has the absolute right to order the assassination of an American citizen, anytime, anywhere, including within the United States, and then claim that it is a state secret.” THREAD 1/ buff.ly/39Fe8dJ In an oral argument before the DC Appellate Court, a Judge asked the Trump Administration’s lawyer if the US President can kill her without due process?
His response:
“There’s no recourse you can get from a court.” 2/