Abdul Razak (Guantanamo detainee 219)

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Abdul Razak is a citizen of China, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] His Guantanamo detainee ID number is 219. The Department of Defense reports Razak was born in Atush, China. American intelligence analysts provided birthdates, or the estimated year of birth for all but 12 detainees. Razak was one of those 12.

1 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
- 1.1 allegations
- 1.2 testimony
2 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 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.

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

[edit] allegations

The allegations Razak faced during his Tribunal were:

a. Associations

The detainee admits belonging to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM).
ETIM has ties to Al-Qaida and the Taliban.

b. Hostile activity

The detainee received training in an Al-Qaida sponsored camp two hours North or Northwest of Jalalabad, Afghanistan in 2001.
The detainee traveled to the mountain training camp in Tora Bora and fled when U.S. forces began bombing that location.
The detainee carried a weapon while guarding an Al-Qaida safe house in Jalalabad.