Rahmatullah

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rahmatullah is a citizen of Afghanistan, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.[1] Rahmatullah's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 964.

Rahmatullah is one of approximately one dozen Afghans captured on February 10, 2003, following an ambush on an American convoy, near the village of Lejay, Afghanistan.

Contents

[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's 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. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 1st Class Christopher Mobley
Enlarge
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's 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. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 1st Class Christopher Mobley

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 tribunal 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.

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

[edit] witnesses

Rahmatullah requested two witnesses: Haji Manan and Khurullah, his father. The Tribunal's President ruled that the witnesses were relevant, but "not reasonably available".

[edit] allegations

The allegations against Rahmatullah were:

[edit] associations

  1. The detainee has strong ties to the Taliban.
  2. The detainee organized a violent anti-government protest in Tarin Kowt, which urged Afghans to kill United States Forces and any Afghan who assisted the United States Forces.
  3. The detainee was reported to have close ties to a former senior Taliban military commander

[edit] commitment/activities

  1. The detainee fit the description of one of the individuals leaving the site of the ambush against U.S. forces.
  2. The detainee was involved in the ambush of United States Forces and was captured with a large cache of weapons.
  3. The detainee suffered hearing loss when captured, which was caused by firing weapons.

[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.

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

[edit] testimony

Rahmatullah described himself as a day laborer. Rahmatullah was taking a jitney taxi from the village near where he had been working to the village where he lived. Around 11 am it passed through the village of Lejay. He and the other passengers saw planes and heard gunfire. They proceeded through Lejay, where he was arrested.

The designated Military Officer said that the US had launched an attack on this village at 10am, because they believed it was a stronghold for the forces of Raes Abdul Wahed, a resistance leader. The US report said US forces captured 70 men, and decided to hold 11 men, asserting that they had blood on their clothes, or gunpowder, or they were hard of hearing. Rahmatullah denied having any blood or gunpowder stains on his clothing, or that there was anything wrong with his hearing.

[edit] References

  1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
  2. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Rahmatullah's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 33-40
  3. ^ Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Rahmatullah's Administrative Review Board hearing - pages 49-57

[edit] See also

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../r/a/h/Rahmatullah.html"