THE GREEN Party has said that the State should accept for resettlement an Uzbek national who has been detained at Guantánamo Bay for the past seven years.
Ciarán Cuffe, the Coalition partner’s justice spokesman, said there was a strong case for accepting 30-year-old exonerated detainee Oybek Jamoldinivich Jabbarov, who was living as a refugee in Afghanistan when he was captured in 2001.
He has been cleared for release but remains at the US detention centre because he cannot return to Uzbekistan for fear of torture and persecution.
Bush administration officials last year discussed with the Department of Justice the possibility of accepting inmates who had been cleared for release, while Amnesty International and Mr Jabbarov’s lawyer have been lobbying the Government to grant him refugee status.
Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern last week signalled a softening of his stance on the issue, saying Ireland would be prepared to resettle former prisoners if there was a common EU approach.
The Minister had previously been opposed to taking in detainees, but said that President Barack Obama’s initiative in suspending military trials at Guantánamo had created “a new context”.
The US president has also ordered the facility’s closure within a year.
Mr Cuffe said that he had pressed the Departments of Justice and Foreign Affairs to accept Mr Jabbarov. “I’d like to see Ireland lead on this. This case, from everything I have seen, is a very strong one,” he said.
“Given that the Irish State played a vital role in this war , I think there’s a moral duty on Ireland to show some moral leadership in dealing with the consequences. There is a need for Ireland to take some responsibility for the downside of the war.”
Mr Jabbarov’s Boston-based lawyer, Michael Mone, said he was “very pleased” by Mr Ahern’s remarks and hoped the Government would consider any approach by the Obama administration on the issue.
“I’m glad to see that Ireland is going to be showing leadership on this issue, and I hope that they will consider taking my client. I think he would be a perfect fit for Ireland.
“He is not a threat, he has a good chance of being integrated into society and I think he would do very well there,” he said.
