Abdel Hadi Mohammed Badan Al Sebaii Sebaii

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Abdel Hadi Mohammed Badan Al Sebaii Sebaii is a citizen of Saudi Arabia, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] Sebaii's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 064. The Department of Defense reports Sebaii was born on August 23, 1971, in El Kharg, Saudi Arabia.

1 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
2 Press reports
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.

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

[edit] Confusion over the difference between a Tribunal and a Court of law

Sebaii expressed confusion over the difference between a Tribunal and a court of law. And continued to express confusion over the Tribunal procedure throughout the session.

[edit] Witness requests

Sebaii requested two witnesses.

Sebaii requested a statement from the Saudi Minister of the Interior confirming that he was a Saudi Police Officer, and he requested a statement from the Saudi ambassador to Sudan, confirming he was working there as a humanitarian volunteer. The Tribunal's President had ruled that these witnesses were not relevant. He ruled that Sebaii's previous employment was not relevant. Sebaii asked, if his activities in 1996 were not relevant, why was the fourth allegation against him that he was suspected of fighting in Bosnia in 1996.

The Tribunal's President admitted they couldn't explain the presence of the allegation of his activities in 1996, and the Tribunal would ignore it.

[edit] Allegations

The allegations Sebaii faced during his Tribunal were:

The detainee was captured in Pakistan as he crossed the border shortly after Ramadan in December 2001.
The detainee worked as a volunteer for al Haramain, an Islamic charity.
Al Haramain is a non-governmental organization with known ties to al Qaida and Usama Bin Laden.
Detainee is suspected of being a Bosnian Mujahadin fighter that [sic] was previously captured in 1996.

[edit] testimony

Al Sebai disputed the allegation that he was captured while he crossed the border. He had fled to Pakistan to escape anti-Arab retribution. He had already crossed into Pakistan, and was seeking help contacting the Saudi embassy. When Pakistani soldiers appeared in the village where he had spent the night, he prompty turned himself in to them.

Al Sebai denied working for al Haramain. He said he donated twenty days volunteering for them. So far as he knew they were a legitimate charity, that worked on legitimate humanitarian purposes. Al Sebai pointed out to the Tribunal that he had requested documentation to confirm that the twenty days he volunteered helping refugees after a flood, in Sudan, was a purely humanitarian activity, and this documentation was part of what his Tribunal’s President had ruled “irrelevant”.

Al Sebai’s Personal Representative pointed out that during 1996/1997, when Al Sebai volunteered his twenty days aiding flood victims, al Haramain had not yet fallen under any suspicion of being subverted by terrorist sympathizers.

Although the Tribunal’s President decided to rule out the allegation that he was captured in Bosnia, Al Sebai’s Personal Representative pointed out that Al Sebai was serving as a Police officer in Saudi Arabia, at the time he was alleged to have been captured in Bosnia, and that this could be document through his Police personnel records.

Al Sebai pointed out that he was a decorated veteran of the Gulf War.

Al Sebai said that he had seen his passport a year prior to his Tribunal. Al Sebai’s Personal Representative drew the Tribunal’s attention to Exhibit D-B, a report from the evidence room confirming that his ticket and passport confirmed Al Sebai’s account of his travel.

[edit] Press reports

Former George W. Bush speech writer David Frum reported, on November 11, 2006 on his reading of the transcripts of nine Guantanamo detainees.^[3] About al Sebai Frum wrote:

“A Saudi detainee, confronted with evidence that he had traveled to Bosnia in the mid-1990s, then to Sudan, then to Afghanistan, explained that he had devoted himself exclusively to construction of mosques. But had his travel not been paid by al Haramain, a well-known front group for al Qaida? He knew nothing about that, 'If al Haramain is a terrorist organization, why is it my problem? Am I guilty if they are terrorists?'”