Muhammad Rahim denied justice: his family responds

On Tuesday 20 September 2016, the parole review board (PRB) made it public that it has refused to clear for release 50-year-old Muhammad Rahim al Afghani, the last detainee tortured by the CIA. He remains a “forever prisoner” and “high value detainee” imprisoned without charge. Crucially, the PRB did not make any mention of Rahim’s torture, even though the office-holders who ordered it were identified by name in official documents. [Read more: The man who ended the CIA’s torture programme seeks release from Guantanamo](https://cage.ngo/article/the-man-who-ended-the-cias-torture-programme/) _“Our family is sad but we will continue to work for his release”, _his brother said to CAGE upon learning the PRB’s decision. “_As Allah says in the Qur’an: Say: “Nothing will happen to us except what Allah has decreed for us.”_ In a** [brief decision](http://www.prs.mil/Portals/60/Documents/ISN10029/20160919\_U\_ISN10029\_FINAL\_DETERMINATION\_PUBLIC.pdf) \*\*released by the Pentagon, the PRB made a series of allegations about his past and speculated about his intent in the future if released. Mr Rahim was denied legal advice as his attorney Carlos Warner was not permitted to participate in the hearing. Mr Warner is convinced that his client is being held because he holds crucial information about the CIA torture programme. “He is being held because he was in a black site, not because of what he did. If he did those things, why didn’t they charge him?”, Mr Warner **[said to the Miami Herald](http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/guantanamo/article103032462.html)\*\*. In unclassified letters **[previously published by his lawyers](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3234685/Guantanamo-prisoner-DATING-PROFILE-Match-com-says-detained-ready-mingle.html)\*\*, Muhammad Rahim said: “I am not high value. They call me high value because the CIA tortured me… I thought I could prove my innocence in the US, I was wrong.” Muhammad Rahim will remain imprisoned in Guantanamo with little recourse to justice, by the world’s most vociferous proponent of freedom and human rights.