Adil Mabrouk Bin Hamida

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Adil Mabrouk Bin Hamida is a citizen of Tunisia held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] Hamida's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 148. The Department of Defense reports that Hamida was born on September 15, 1970, in Tunis, Tunisia.

[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 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.

[edit] Allegations

During the winter and spring of 2005 the Department of Defense complied with a Freedom of Information Act request, and released five files that contained 507 memoranda which each summarized the allegations against a single detainee. These memos, entitled "Summary of Evidence" were prepared for the detainee's Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The detainee's names and ID numbers were redacted from all but one of these memos, when they were first released in 2005. But some of them contain notations in pen. 169 of the memos bear a hand-written notation specifying the detainee's ID number. One of the memos had a notation specifying Hamida's detainee ID.^[2] The allegations Hamida would have faced, during his Tribunal, were:

a. The detainee is associated with al Qaida.

1. The detainee ############### living in Italy, traveled to Afghanistan in early 2001.
2. The detainee stayed at the "House of Algerians" guesthouse in Jalalabad.
3. The detainee trained on the assembly and disassembly of the Kalishnikov ^[sic]rifle.
4. The Tunisian government has listed the detainee as an extremist who lived in the Bosnian-Mujahedin Village of Boeinja Bonja.
5. The detainee was a member of the Sami Essid Network.
6. The Sami Essid Network provides financial support to terrorist groups.
7. Detainee was ####### ####### ####### ####### ####### for being a member of a terrorist organization operating abroad.
8. Detainee possibly falsified passports for fleeing al Qaida combatants who make it to Europe.
9. Detainee was captured on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border by Pakistani military forces.

[edit] Transcript

Hamida chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[3]

[edit] Response to the allegations

• Adel Ben acknowledged traveling to Afghanistan -- as an immigrant.
• Adel Ben acknowledged staying at the "House of the Algerians".
• Adel Ben acknowledged being trained on the assemby and disassembly of the AK-47.
• Adel Ben denied ever traveling to Bosnia, and denied ever hearing of the village of Bocinja Donja.
• Adel Ben said he had never heard of the Sami Essid Network.
• Adel Ben denied any knowledge of any sentences against him in Tunisia.
• Adel Ben denied ever forging any passports.
• Adel Ben acknowledged being captured on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

Adel Ben's Personal Representative was able to produce Adel Ben's passport into evidence, in an attempt to show his passport had no stamp from Bosnia, showing that the allegation that he had traveled to Bosnia was false. The Tribunal's President criticized the Personal Representative for not having the passport translated prior to introducing it.

[edit] Response to Tribunal questions

[edit] Response to the allegations

• Adel Ben acknowledged traveling to Afghanistan -- as an immigrant.
• Adel Ben acknowledged staying at the "House of the Algerians".
• Adel Ben acknowledged being trained on the assemby and disassembly of the AK-47.
• Adel Ben denied ever traveling to Bosnia, and denied ever hearing of the village of Bocinja Donja.
• Adel Ben said he had never heard of the Sami Essid Network.
• Adel Ben denied any knowledge of any sentences against him in Tunisia.
• Adel Ben denied ever forging any passports.
• Adel Ben acknowledged being captured on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

Adel Ben's Personal Representative was able to produce Adel Ben's passport into evidence, in an attempt to show his passport had no stamp from Bosnia, showing that the allegation that he had traveled to Bosnia was false. The Tribunal's President criticized the Personal Representative for not having the passport translated prior to introducing it.

[edit] Response to Tribunal questions

[edit] References

1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
2. ^ Summary of Evidence (.pdf) prepared for Adil Mabrouk Bin Hamida's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - October 8, 2004 - page 176
3. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Adil Mabrouk Bin Hamida's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 48-58