Abdallah Ibrahim Al Rushaydan

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Abdallah Ibrahim Al Rushaydan is a citizen of Saudi Arabia, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] Al Rushaydan's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 343. The Department of Defense reports that Al Rushaydan was born on January 4, 1967, in Khobar, Saudi Arabia.

1 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
- 1.1 allegations
- 1.2 testimony
2 Administrative Review Board hearing
3 References

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a small trailer, the same width, but shorter, than a mobile home. The Tribunal's President sat in the big chair. The detainee sat with their hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor in the white, plastic garden chair. A one way mirror behind the Tribunal President allowed observers to observe clandestinely. In theory the open sessions of the Tribunals were open to the press. Three chairs were reserved for them. In practice the Tribunal only intermittently told the press that Tribunals were being held. And when they did they kept the detainee's identities secret. In practice almost all Tribunals went unobserved.

Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct a competent tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status.

Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants -- rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant.

Al Rushaydan chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[2]

[edit] allegations

The allegations against Al Rushaydan were:^[2]

a. -- The general summary of the allegations that establish an association with terrorism were missing from the transcript. --

The detainee voluntarily traveled from Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan in November 2001
The detainee traveled and shared hotel rooms with an Afghani
The Afghani the detainee traveled with is a member of the Taliban government.
The detainee was captured on 10 December 2001 on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

[edit] testimony

Al Rushaydan acknowledged traveling to a refugee camp in Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan. He had a five week itinerary, traveling through Bahrain, Syria, Iran, in addition to Pakistan.

He didn't have enough money to help out the refugees on this trip. But, if conditions were bad, he would try to raise funds for a subsequent donation.

The man he shared a hotel room with was not an Afghani, or a member of the Taliban government. He was an Iranian shop-keeper he met in a bazaar, who was also planning to go to Syria. So it made sense to share expenses.

[edit] Administrative Review Board hearing

Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board hearings. The Administrative Review Boards weren't authorized to review whether a detainee qualified for POW status, and they weren't authorized to review whether a detainee should have been classified as an "enemy combatant".

They were authorized to consider whether a detainee should continue to be detained by the United States, because they continued to pose a threat -- or whether they could safely be repatriated to the custody of their home country, or whether they could be set free.

Al Rushaydan chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.^[3]