Aminullah Baryalai Tukhi

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Aminullah Baryalai Tukhi is a citizen of Afghanistan, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] Tukhi's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 1012. American intelligence analysts estimate that Tukhi was born in 1972, in Heart [sic], Afghanistan.

1 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
- 1.1 allegations
- 1.2 testimony
2 Administrative Review Board hearing
- 2.1 Factors for and against continued detention
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.

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

[edit] allegations

Detainee facilitated the travel of individuals from Meshad, Iran to the border town of Tayyebat, Iran, which is near the Afghan border in 2001.
Detainee associated with the leader of al Wafa, Abdulla Aziz [sic], and received payments for arranging the travel of individuals to and from Afghanistan.
Al Wafa is a known Terrorist organization as directed in Presidential Executive Order 13224.
Detainee forged documents to faciliate the escape of al Qaida members.

[edit] testimony

Tukhi denied facilitating travel from Meshad to Tayyebat. He worked as a taxi driver, in Meshad.

Tukhi acknowledged that he, once, traveled with Abdulla Aziz, from Meshad to Tayyebat, in 1999.

Tukhi is an Afghan refugee, living in Iran. He has lived there so long he has no accent. As an Afghan refugee he is not supposed to be able to work. But he is able to work as a taxi driver because, if any policeman stops him he cannot detect he is an Afghan.

Tukhi is an Afghan from the Sunni part of Afghanistan, and the manager of a hotel he knew contacted him and asked him if he wanted to make some money, by going with a rich Sunni, during this long drive, and help him find Sunni food to eat. He didn't help anyone cross the border, or forge documments for anyone. He just fetched the kind of food they were familiar with.

Tukhi said Abdulla Aziz sent him for Sunni food three times, and that he called him on his cell phone and asked him to get Sunni food for friends of his five to seven times.

Tukhi acknowledged that he got paid for fetching Sunni food for these Sunnis. But he never talked to them about Politics, or any other topic except food, because he doesn't speak Arabic, and they didn't speak any languages he knew. In addition to paying for his taxi, they would let him keep whatever change was left over from the food they catered. Tukhi said he never earned any major money from all the catering trips they sent him on.

Tukhi said he knew nothing about al Wafa. He said when he met Abdulla Aziz there was nothing stamped on his forehead, sauomg je was a dangerous person.

Tukhi said his 2002 arrest had nothing to do with terrorism.

One day he left his liscense at home, so when a policeman pulled him over for a routine traffic stop, he handed him his vehicle registration instead. He forgot that this was the day he planned to renew his refugee residency permission ID card. He had put it in with his vehicle registration. The policeman noticed the Afghan refugee residency card, which meant he was working illegally.

The day he was arrested Iran was in an uproar because President Bush had said Iran was a bad place.

A month later the Iranians handed over six Arabs, two Afghans, one Uzbek, and a tongee [sic].

[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.

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

[edit] Factors for and against continued detention

During most detainee's Board hearings the factors are read out verbatim. The factors were always broken down into those in favour of continued detention, and those favouring release or repatriation. The factors in favor of continued detention were always grouped into subsections like "Associations", "Training", "Commitment", "Intent", "Connections", "Other Relevant Data".

Tukhi's Assisting Military Officer paraphrased the factors.

"...forged documents to facilitate the escape of al Qaida members."
"...facilitated the travel of individuals, in 2001, from Meshad [sic], Iran to Tayyebat, Iran, a town near the Afghan border."
"...associated with Abdul Aziz, the leader of al Wafa, and received payments for arranging the travel of individuals to and from Afghanistan."
Al Wafa is a known terrorist organization.
"...smuggled al Wafa members into Afghanistan."
"...he was in a student political organization that was not popular in Afghanistan, and was against the Taliban."
"...has previously stated that he is not al Qaida or Taliban."