Akhtar Mohammed (Guantanamo detainee 845)

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For other individuals named some variant of the same name, see Akhtiar Mohammed.

Akhtar Mohammed is a citizen of Afghanistan, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] Mohammed's detainee ID number as 845.^[1] American intelligence analysts estimated that Mohammed was born in 1970, in Barogai, Afghanistan.

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.

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

[edit] allegations

The allegations that Mohammed faced during his Tribunal were:

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

The detainee was associated with a rocket attack on U.S. forces in Asadabad, Konar Province on 21 September 2002, and was identified as a sub-commander of the operation.
The detainee was a policeman under the Taliban and provided information on the police force.
The detainee identified an HIG compound and its functions.
When the detainee was captured, American and AMF forces knocked on his door early in the morning and searched his home and found a Kalashnikov and eight or nine old, rusty rocket/artillery shells.
The detainee was a heavy machine gun operator for the Taliban.

[edit] testimony

Mohammed said he had never been a police officer, that he had worked for himself all his adult life. He was a lumberman.

Mohammed said he knew nothing about any rocket attack. He no longer lived in Konar, and that he was arrested on his first night back for a family visit. He saw a personal enemy when he arrived back for his visit. This guy was an officer in the local Afghan forces. He suspected this man invented the allegations against him.

[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.

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