Mohammad Al Rahman Al Shumrani (born February 27, 1975, in Riyadh) is a citizen of Saudi Arabia who was held in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.[3] His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 195.
Mohammad Al Rahman Al Shumrani | |
|---|---|
 Mohammad Al Rahman Al Shumrani's identity portrait, showing him wearing the white uniform issued to white uniform individuals. | |
| Born | February 27, 1975[1][2] |
| Nationality | Saudi Arabia |
| Occupation | charity worker |
A relief worker living in Afghanistan, al-Shumrani was arrested in 2001.[4]
Al-Shumrani was transferred to Guantanamo on January 17, 2002.[5][6] As of August 2015, he remains held in Guantanamo as one of the "forever prisoners", individuals considered too innocent to face charges, but too dangerous to be released.
On August 7, 2015, Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Miami Herald, reported that documents presented to his 2015 Periodic Review Board panel, his following the news on ISIS was offered as a justification for his continued detention.[7]
Shumrani was repatriated to Saudi Arabia on January 11, 2016, the anniversary of the camp's opening.[8]
Official status reviews
editOriginally the Bush Presidency asserted that captives apprehended in the "war on terror" were not covered by the Geneva Conventions, and could be held indefinitely, without charge, and without an open and transparent review of the justifications for their detention.[9] In 2004, the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, that Guantanamo captives were entitled to being informed of the allegations justifying their detention, and were entitled to try to refute them.
Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants
edit
Following the Supreme Court's ruling the Department of Defense set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants.[9][12]
Scholars at the Brookings Institution, led by Benjamin Wittes, listed the captives still held in Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain common allegations:[13]
- Mohammad Al Rahman Al Shumrani was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... are associated with both Al Qaeda and the Taliban."[13]
- Mohammad Al Rahman Al Shumrani was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... traveled to Afghanistan for jihad."[13]
- Mohammad Al Rahman Al Shumrani was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges that the following detainees stayed in Al Qaeda, Taliban or other guest- or safehouses."[13]
- Mohammad Al Rahman Al Shumrani was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... took military or terrorist training in Afghanistan."[13]
- Mohammad Al Rahman Al Shumrani was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... fought for the Taliban."[13]
- Mohammad Al Rahman Al Shumrani was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... were at Tora Bora."[13]
- Mohammad Al Rahman Al Shumrani was listed as one of the captives whose "names or aliases were found on material seized in raids on Al Qaeda safehouses and facilities."[13]
- Mohammad Al Rahman Al Shumrani was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges that the following detainees were captured under circumstances that strongly suggest belligerency."[13]
- Mohammad Al Rahman Al Shumrani was listed as one of the captives who was an "al Qaeda operative".[13]
- Mohammad Al Rahman Al Shumrani was listed as one of the "82 detainees made no statement to CSRT or ARB tribunals or made statements that do not bear materially on the military's allegations against them."[13]
Habeas petition
editAl-Shumrani had a habeas corpus petition submitted on his behalf.
Formerly secret Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment
editOn April 25, 2011, whistleblower organization WikiLeaks published formerly secret assessments drafted by Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts.[14][15] His Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment, dated October 24, 2008, called him Muhammad Abd al-Rahman al-Shumrant.[16] His assessment was twelve pages long and was signed by camp commandant Rear Admiral David M. Thomas Jr. He recommended continued detention.
Guantanamo Review Task Force
editOn January 21, 2009, the day he was inaugurated, United States President Barack Obama issued three Executive orders related to the detention of individuals in Guantanamo.[17] He established a task force to re-review the status of all the remaining captives. Where the OARDEC officials reviewing the status of the captives were all "field grade" officers in the US military (Commanders, naval Captains, Lieutenant Colonels and Colonels) the officials seconded to the task force were drawn from not only the Department of Defense, but also from five other agencies, including the Departments of State, Justice, Homeland Security. President Obama gave the task force a year, it recommended the release of 55 individuals who were assessed as not representing a serious threat. The task force recommended several dozen other individuals should face war crime charges before a Guantanamo military commission. A third group was composed of individuals who could not be charged with a crime, because there was no evidence they committed a crime, but who were, nevertheless, considered too dangerous to release.
Al-Shumrani was a listed in the third group.[18]
References
edit- ^ JTF- GTMO Detainee Assessment Department of defense
- ^ Guantanamo Detainee Profile
- ^ OARDEC. "List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2015-08-07.
- ^ Frank Joordans (2009-01-22). "World leaders welcome Gitmo closure". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 2015-08-07.
"We were overjoyed when we heard the news," said Ali al-Shamrani, who is from the Saudi capital, Riyadh. He said his nephew Mohammed al-Shamrani, 35, has been held at Guantanamo for eight years after being picked up in Afghanistan, where he was doing relief work.
- ^ "Measurements of Heights and Weights of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (ordered and consolidated version)" (PDF). Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas, from DoD data. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-06-13. Retrieved 2015-08-07.
- ^ Margot Williams (2008-11-03). "Guantanamo Docket: Mohammad al Rahman al Shumrani". New York Times. Retrieved 2015-08-07.
- ^ Carol Rosenberg (2015-08-07). "Guantánamo now tracking captives' interest in ISIS, founded after prison". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on 2015-08-07.
The captive, Muhammed abd al Rahman al Shumrani, 40, one of Guantánamo's 32 "forever prisoners" who have been considered too dangerous to release but ineligible for a criminal trial, was asking to go home. His American lawyer of nine years said in a statement to the board that he wants to "focus on his family and building a peaceful life."
- ^ Carol Rosenberg (2016-01-11). "Saudi who protested Guantánamo groin searches goes home". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on 2016-01-12.
Mohammed Shimrani, 40, became the fourth captive transferred in six days as the Pentagon edges towards releasing 17 prisoners this month. Two were sent to resettlement in Ghana and a third was repatriated to Kuwait.
- ^ a b "U.S. military reviews 'enemy combatant' use". USA Today. 2007-10-11. Archived from the original on 2007-10-23.
Critics called it an overdue acknowledgment that the so-called Combatant Status Review Tribunals are unfairly geared toward labeling detainees the enemy, even when they pose little danger. Simply redoing the tribunals won't fix the problem, they said, because the system still allows coerced evidence and denies detainees legal representation.
- ^ Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court, New York Times, November 11, 2004 - mirror Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004
- ^ "Q&A: What next for Guantanamo prisoners?". BBC News. 2002-01-21. Archived from the original on 23 November 2008. Retrieved 2015-08-07.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Benjamin Wittes, Zaathira Wyne (2008-12-16). "The Current Detainee Population of Guantánamo: An Empirical Study" (PDF). The Brookings Institution. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-06-01. Retrieved 2015-08-07.
- ^ Christopher Hope; Robert Winnett; Holly Watt; Heidi Blake (2011-04-27). "WikiLeaks: Guantanamo Bay terrorist secrets revealed -- Guantanamo Bay has been used to incarcerate dozens of terrorists who have admitted plotting terrifying attacks against the West – while imprisoning more than 150 totally innocent people, top-secret files disclose". The Telegraph (UK). Archived from the original on 2012-07-15. Retrieved 2015-08-07.
The Daily Telegraph, along with other newspapers including The Washington Post, today exposes America's own analysis of almost ten years of controversial interrogations on the world's most dangerous terrorists. This newspaper has been shown thousands of pages of top-secret files obtained by the WikiLeaks website.
- ^ "WikiLeaks: The Guantánamo files database". The Telegraph (UK). 2011-04-27. Archived from the original on 2011-04-29. Retrieved 2015-08-07.
- ^ "Guantanamo Bay detainee file on Muhammad Abd Al Rahman Awn Al Shamrani, US9SA-000195DP, passed to the Telegraph by Wikileaks". The Telegraph (UK). 2011-04-27. Retrieved 2015-08-07.
- ^ Andy Worthington (2012-10-25). "Who Are the 55 Cleared Guantánamo Prisoners on the List Released by the Obama Administration?". Retrieved 2015-08-07.
- ^ "71 Guantanamo Detainees Determined Eligible to Receive a Periodic Review Board as of April 19, 2013". Guantanamo Review Task Force. 2013-04-19. Archived from the original on 2015-05-19. Retrieved 2015-08-07.