WASHINGTON (AP) — The oldest prisoner on the Guantanamo Bay detention heart went to his newest overview board listening to with a level of hope, one thing that has been scarce throughout his 16 years locked up with out fees on the U.S. base in Cuba.

Saifullah Paracha, a 73-year-old Pakistani with diabetes and a coronary heart situation, had two issues going for him that he did not have at earlier hearings: a positive authorized improvement and the election of Joe Biden.

President Donald Trump had successfully ended the Obama administration’s observe of reviewing the instances of males held at Guantanamo and releasing them if imprisonment was not deemed mandatory. Now there’s hope that may resume underneath Biden.

“I’m extra hopeful now just because we’ve an administration to stay up for that isn’t useless set on ignoring the prevailing overview course of,” Paracha’s lawyer, Shelby Sullivan-Bennis, stated by cellphone from the bottom on Nov. 19 after the listening to. “The easy existence of that on the horizon I believe is hope for all of us.”

Guantanamo was as soon as a supply of worldwide outrage and an emblem of U.S. extra in response to terrorism. But it surely largely pale from the headlines after President Barack Obama failed to shut it, at the same time as 40 males proceed to be detained there.

These pushing for its closure now see a window of alternative, hoping Biden’s administration will discover a approach to prosecute those that will be prosecuted and launch the remaining, extricating the U.S. from a detention heart that prices greater than $445 million per yr.

Biden’s exact intentions for Guantanamo stay unclear. Transition spokesman Ned Value stated the president-elect helps closing it, however it could be inappropriate to debate his plans intimately earlier than he is in workplace.

His reticence is definitely welcome to those that have pressed to shut Guantanamo. Obama’s early pledge to shut it’s now seen as a strategic mistake that undercut what had been a bipartisan subject.

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“I believe it’s extra more likely to shut if it doesn’t grow to be an enormous press subject,” stated Andrea Prasow, deputy Washington director at Human Rights Watch.

The detention heart opened in 2002. President George W. Bush’s administration remodeled what had been a sleepy Navy outpost on Cuba’s southeastern tip into a spot to interrogate and imprison folks suspected of hyperlinks to al-Qaida and the Taliban after the Sept. 11, 2001 assaults.

U.S. authorities preserve the boys will be held as “legislation of warfare” detainees, remaining in custody at some stage in hostilities, an open-ended prospect.

At its peak in 2003 — the yr Paracha was captured in Thailand due to suspected ties to al-Qaida — Guantanamo held about 700 prisoners from almost 50 international locations. Bush introduced his intention to shut it, although 242 have been nonetheless held there when his presidency ended.

The Obama administration, searching for to allay considerations that a few of these launched had “returned to the struggle,” arrange a course of to make sure these repatriated or resettled in third international locations not posed a risk. It additionally deliberate to strive among the males in federal court docket.

However his closure effort was thwarted when Congress barred the switch of prisoners from Guantanamo to the U.S., together with for prosecution or medical care. Obama ended up releasing 197 prisoners, leaving 41 for Trump.

Trump in his 2016 marketing campaign promised to “load” Guantanamo with “some dangerous dudes,” however largely ignored the difficulty after rescinding Obama’s insurance policies. His administration accredited a single launch, a Saudi who pleaded responsible earlier than a navy fee.

Of these remaining, seven males have instances pending earlier than a navy fee. They embrace 5 males accused of planning and supporting the Sept. 11 assaults. Moreover, there are two prisoners who have been convicted by fee and three dealing with potential prosecution for the 2002 Bali bombing.

Fee proceedings, together with demise penalty instances associated to the Sept. 11 assaults, have slowed down because the protection fights to exclude proof that resulted from torture. Trials are doubtless far sooner or later and would inevitably be adopted by years of appeals.

Protection attorneys say the incoming administration may authorize extra navy fee plea offers. Some have additionally steered Guantanamo detainees may plead responsible in federal court docket by video and serve any remaining sentence in different international locations, so they would not enter the US.

Detainee advocates additionally say Biden may defy Congress and convey prisoners to the U.S., arguing that the ban would not get up in court docket.

“It’s both do one thing about it or they die there with out cost,” stated Wells Dixon, a lawyer for 2 prisoners, together with one who has pleaded responsible within the navy fee and is awaiting sentencing.

The remaining detainees embrace 5 who had been cleared for launch earlier than Trump took workplace and have languished since. Advocates need the Biden administration to overview the remaining, noting that many, had they been convicted in federal court docket, would have served their sentences and been launched at this level.

“Whittle it right down to the parents who’re being prosecuted and both prosecute them or don’t, however don’t simply grasp on to them,” stated Joseph Margulies, a Cornell Legislation Faculty professor who has represented one prisoner. “At nice expense, we stroll round with this factor round our necks. It does no good. It has no position for nationwide safety. It’s only a massive black stain that gives no profit by any means.”

Through the years, 9 prisoners have died at Guantanamo: seven from obvious suicide, one from most cancers and one from a coronary heart assault.

Paracha’s lawyer raised his well being points, which embrace a coronary heart assault in 2006, at his overview board, talking by safe teleconference with U.S. safety and protection businesses.

She additionally raised an essential authorized improvement. Paracha, who lived within the U.S. and owned property in New York Metropolis, was a rich businessman in Pakistan. Authorities say he was an al-Qaida “facilitator” who helped two of the Sept. 11 conspirators with a monetary transaction. He says he did not know they have been al-Qaida and denies any involvement in terrorism.

Uzair Paracha, his son, was convicted in 2005 in federal court docket in New York of offering assist to terrorism, based mostly partially on the identical witnesses held at Guantanamo that the U.S. has relied on to justify holding his father. In March, after a choose threw out these witness accounts and the federal government determined to not search a brand new trial, Uzair Paracha was launched and despatched again to Pakistan.

Had his father been convicted within the U.S., his destiny may need been the identical. As a substitute, it’ll doubtless be in Biden’s fingers and, Sullivan-Bennis stated, time is of the essence. “It may very well be a demise sentence.”