Abd Al Aziz Sayer Uwain Al Shammeri

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Abd Al Aziz Sayer Uwain Al Shammeri (also translitereated Abdulaziz al-Shimmari) is a Kuwaiti citizen detained, without charge, at the United States Guantánamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.[1] Al Shammeri's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 217.[2] The Department of Defense reports that Al Shammeri was born on September 23, 1973, in Al Fahahil, Kuwait.

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 his 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.
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 his 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 Shammeri is notable because he is one of the few detainees whose dossier has been made public, and who participated in a question and answer session with the officers on his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

[edit] Allegations

During his Combatant Status Review Tribunal, after two and a half years of detention, Al Shammeri finally learned the unclassified allegations against him. Those allegations were:[3]

a The detainee is a member of al Qaeda
  1. The detainee traveled from Kuwait to Iran and then to Afghanistan soon after 11 September 2001.
  2. Detainee was arrested by the Pakistani Army while attempting to cross in Pakistan from Afghanistan without identification documents.
  3. One of the detainee's known aliases was on a list of captured hard drives (sic) associated with a senior al Qaeda member.

[edit] Testimony

His dossier contained 14 pages of transcripts.

  • Al Shammeri welcomed his review, apparently because he welcomed the chance to explain that he was innocent of ties to terrorism.[4]
  • Al Shammeri erroneously thought the Tribunal was a legal proceeding, and that he would be granted the presumption of innocence.[5]
  • Al Shammeri acknowledged that he had traveled to Afghanistan.[5] But he said that al Qaeda formed less than 1% of the people in Afghanistan. He pointed out that he traveled to Afghanistan before the American attack.
  • Al Shammeri said that he had traveled to Afghanistan on the invitation of an Afghani exile he met during a religious pilgrimage, (omra), to Mecca.[6] He received this invitation because he had spent four years in Islamic Studies at the Iman Mohammed Bin Saud Islamic University. His invitation was for the purpose of offering religious training.
  • He said that after the fall of the Taliban every Arab had to flee, and became separated from his passport.[7]
  • He claimed that he sought out the Pakistani authorities, hoping they could connect him with Kuwaiti consular officials, thus showing he was not a fugitive.[7]
  • In answer to the third allegation he stated his name, said it was his only name -- that he had no aliases.[8] He said his name is a common one, and that many other people share it.
  • In response to a questions from the Tribunal President, Al Shammeri acknowledged joining the Kuwaiti Army in 1992, but denied that this implied any connection to terrorism.[9]
  • One of the other Tribunal officers asked Al Shammeri to clarify how he got disconnected from his passport, and how he thought he could gain entry into Pakistan without it.[10] He replied that he had routinely left his documents in his baggage, as no one in Afghanistan was ever interested in seeing it. He went on to say:
"...part of the Northern Alliance had entered the closest city to us. They started killing any Arab they saw and captured them, even if he wasn't a combatant...So, when I hear something like that, I don't think of going back and getting my passport, I just think of my life.
"Like I told you, I thought if I went to Pakistan, the would detain me for a while until they found out my country and then return me to my country. I didn't think they would tell me 'Since you don't have identification or a passport, that your means you are a follower of Usama Bin Laden.'
  • When questioned about the allegation that his name had been found on another al Qaeda suspect's hard drive, Al Shammeri reported that his interrogators had only recently began to ask him about his name being found on this hard drive.[11]
  • One of the Tribunal officers asked Al Shammeri if he was, in fact, a lawyer.[12]
Q: You are, in fact, a lawyer, aren't you?
A: No, in my studies I study some things, but I am not a lawyer. If I wanted to be a lawyer, my degree would enable me to work as a lawyer.
Q: You do have a degree in Islamic law, do you not?
A: That's what brought me here to this prison, this degree.
Q: That's unfortunate.
  • Al Shammeri was told that, following the attacks of September 11, 2001, "...a reasonable person could infer that the conflict in Afghanistan was about to widen substantially." — Al Shammeri reminded the Tribunal that US spokesmen were predicting that it would take many months to be ready for an attack.

[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 Shammeri chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.[13]

[edit] Repatriation and Kuwaiti incarceration

Al Shammeri was repatriated to Kuwait on November 4, 2005.[14]

Al Shammeri, and four other Kuwaitis released when he was stood trial in a Kuwaiti court, and were acquitted of all charges.[15]

The Washington Post reported that the two main charges were that the detainees had helped fund Al Wafa, an Afghan charity with ties to Al Qaeda, and that they had fought alongside the Taliban.[16]

Further, the prosecution argued that the detainees actions had endangered Kuwait's political standing and its relaitons with friendly nations.

The detainees' defense had argued that testimony secured in Guantanamo could not be used in Kuwaiti courts, because the detainees and interrogators hadn't signed them. Further, they had argued, the allegations the USA had directed at them weren't violations of Kuwaiti law.

Al Shammeri's trial began in March 2006, and he was acquittd on July 22, 2006.[17]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Unclassified dossier, from Abd Al Aziz Sayer Uwain Al Shammeri's Combatant Status Review Tribunal
  2. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
  3. ^ Summary of evidence (.pdf) from Abd Al Aziz Sayer Uwain Al Shammeri's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - page 28
  4. ^ Al Shammeri's unsworn statement (.pdf) from Abd Al Aziz Sayer Uwain Al Shammeri's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - page 13
  5. ^ a b Al Shammeri's sworn statement (.pdf) from Abd Al Aziz Sayer Uwain Al Shammeri's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - page 14
  6. ^ Al Shammeri's sworn statement (.pdf) from Abd Al Aziz Sayer Uwain Al Shammeri's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - page 15
  7. ^ a b Al Shammeri's sworn statement (.pdf) from Abd Al Aziz Sayer Uwain Al Shammeri's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - page 17
  8. ^ Al Shammeri's sworn statement (.pdf) from Abd Al Aziz Sayer Uwain Al Shammeri's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - page 18
  9. ^ Q & A from the Tribunal's President (.pdf) from Abd Al Aziz Sayer Uwain Al Shammeri's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - page 19
  10. ^ Q & A from the other Tribunal officers (.pdf) from Abd Al Aziz Sayer Uwain Al Shammeri's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - page 21
  11. ^ Q & A from the other Tribunal officers (.pdf) from Abd Al Aziz Sayer Uwain Al Shammeri's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - page 22
  12. ^ Q & A from the other Tribunal officers (.pdf) from Abd Al Aziz Sayer Uwain Al Shammeri's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - page 23
  13. ^ Summarized transcript (.pdf) (.pdf)] from Abd Al Aziz Sayer Uwain Al Shammeri's Administrative Review Board hearing - page 109
  14. ^ Kuwaitis released from Guantanamo, BBC, November 4, 2005
  15. ^ Kuwaiti court acquits ex-Guantanamo prisoners. Independent Online (South Africa), May 22, 2006
  16. ^ Kuwaiti court acquits ex-Guantanamo prisoners. Independent Online (South Africa), May 22, 2006
  17. ^ Kuwait's Gitmo men acquitted - again, Kuwait Times, July 23, 2006
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