The interminable trials at Guantánamo Bay are about to resume
20 years after 9/11 some cases are still in the pre-trial phase
![Life without trial](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/sites/default/files/images/print-edition/20210821_USP004_0.jpg)
TWENTY YEARS after 9/11, the case of the alleged conspirators is set to resume in court over two weeks in September at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility. After a pandemic-induced pause, trials of several remaining detainees began last month. Another prisoner was released on July 19th, the first in over four years. With this new momentum, President Joe Biden aims finally to close the prison at Guantánamo, the site of torture and a legal quagmire that has long tainted America’s image during the “war on terror.” Closing Guantánamo would fulfil a campaign promise, the same promise left broken by Barack Obama.
This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “No easy escape”
United States August 21st 2021
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