John Grisham on a reader who’s spent 11 years in Guantanamo without being charged with a crime

By jia.tolentino August 12, 2013

John Grisham’s op-ed for the New York Times has been shared a lot already, but in case you haven’t read it, it’s a big one. Prompted by the news that his books were being requested and then banned at Guantanamo, Grisham tracked down one of his fans in the prison:

His name is Nabil Hadjarab, and he is a 34-year-old Algerian who grew up in France. He learned to speak French before he learned to speak Arabic. He has close family and friends in France, but not in Algeria. As a kid growing up near Lyon, he was a gifted soccer player and dreamed of playing for Paris St.-Germain, or another top French club. Tragically for Nabil, he has spent the past 11 years as a prisoner at Guantánamo, much of the time in solitary confinement. Starting in February, he participated in a hunger strike, which led to his being force-fed.

For reasons that had nothing to do with terror, war or criminal behavior, Nabil was living peacefully in an Algerian guesthouse in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sept. 11, 2001… At that time, the United States was throwing money at anyone who could deliver an out-of-town Arab found in the region. Nabil was sold to the United States for a bounty of $5,000 and taken to an underground prison in Kabul.

At the Bagram Air Base, Nabil slept on the concrete floor of a razor-wire cage and was subjected to a level of abuse that killed several other prisoners; despite no evidence connecting him to Al-Qaeda, he was flown, hooded and shackled, to Gitmo, where for the last 11 years he’s been living in sub-human conditions with no visits from family members allowed. He’s never been charged for a crime, and he’s been cleared for release under both the Bush and Obama administrations, but he’s still there, and now he’s being force-fed.

Last week, the Obama administration announced that it was transferring some more Arab prisoners back to Algeria. It is likely that Nabil will be one of them, and if that happens another tragic mistake will be made. His nightmare will only continue. He will be homeless. He will have no support to reintegrate him into a society where many will be hostile to a former Gitmo detainee, either on the assumption that he is an extremist or because he refuses to join the extremist opposition to the Algerian government. Instead of showing some guts and admitting they were wrong, the American authorities will whisk him away, dump him on the streets of Algiers and wash their hands.

What should they do? Or what should we do?

First, admit the mistake and make the apology. Second, provide compensation. United States taxpayers have spent $2 million a year for 11 years to keep Nabil at Gitmo; give the guy a few thousand bucks to get on his feet. Third, pressure the French to allow his re-entry.