Fethi Boucetta

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Fethi Boucetta is a citizen of Algeria, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] His detainee ID number is 718. The Department of Defense reports that he was born on September 15, 1963, in Algiers.^[2]

1 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
2 Determined not to have been an Enemy Combatant
- 2.1 Release
3 UN refugee status
4 References

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

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.

Boucetta had chosen to attend his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[3] But he changed his mind, and allowed his Personal Representative to give his answers to the Tribunal in his absence.

[edit] Allegations

The allegations against Boucetta were:^[3]

a. The detainee supported the Taliban and al Qaida forces.

The detainee is an Algerian national who has traveled between Pakistan and Afghanistan between 1989 through 2002.
the detainee reportedly was an active member of the Islamic Salvation Front.
The Islamic Salvation Front is a terrorist and armed militant group.
The detainee reportedly left Yemen and went to Afghanistan at the request of the Taliban.
In Afghanistan, the detainee reportedly organized combatants to fight for the Taliban.
The detainee reportedly has organized extremist networks in Arab countries and has contacts throughout the Middle East.
The detainee was arrested in Pakistan during a raid of al Qaida residences, on May 27, 2002.

[edit] Testimony

Boucetta acknowledged traveling to Afghanistan, from Pakistan, because he worked as a physician for the poor. But, he said that he had not traveled to Afghanistan after 1992.

He lived from 1992-1996 in Yemen. He lived in Pakistan from 1996 until his capture. He lived in an United Nations refugee camp in Vershowa, Pakistan, where he worked as a physician and teacher. Boucetta asserted that the record of his monthly issue of rations proved he remained in the camp, and was not traveling to Aghanistan. Boucetta also said that the U.N. performed random visitations, which would also have detected his absence.

Boucetta left Algeria in 1989, a year before the Islamic Salvation Front was founded. Boucetta said that the Islamic Salvation Front only operated in Algeria The reason he left Algeria was that he wanted to avoid military service. However he said he had a good relationship with the Algerian Embassies wherever he traveled. Boucetta thought this disproved the allegation he was a member of the Islamic Salvation Front.

Boucetta said he traveled from Yemen to Pakistan because he didn't want to return to Algeria, which was in the middle of a civil war, and he had tried to immigrate to European countries, without success. He had worked in Pakistan before, so it seemed like his best choice. It had nothing to do with the Taliban.

Boucetta denied being engaged in hostilities, and he denied recruiting or organizing combatants. Boucetta argued that his colleague Menhal Al Henali would have been able to testify on his behalf that this was not what he had been doing, because their families lived together and they worked together. Muhamed Hussein Abdallah hadn't worked directly with him, but he had commuted with Al Henali and himself every day.

During his Combatant Status Review Tribunal Abdallah had said that the former director of their refugee camp had joined Hamid Karzai's government as Minister of Education.

Boucetta denied that he was captured in an al Qaida residence. He was captured in his own home. He said nothing in his house was connected to al Qaida. Boucetta said that on their first visit the Pakistani authorities were looking for a Sudanese guy. But that they decided to pay him a second visit and arrest him too.

[edit] Witnesses

Boucetta had requested three witnesses:

His case-worker at the refugee camp, an American woman, working for the UN. Her name was redacted in the transcript. Boucetta's personal representative said she could not be found to give a statement.
Muhamed Hussein Abdallah, detainee 704, captured at the same time Boucetta was, had been willing to testify on Boucetta's behalf, but when Boucetta changed his mind about attending his Tribunal he also changed his mind about calling Abdallah.
Menhal Al Henali, detainee 726, had been captured at the same time Boucetta was. He had been released prior to Boucetta's Tribunal, and the State Department had been unable to locate him.

[edit] Determined not to have been an Enemy Combatant

The Washington Post reports that Boucetta was one of 38 detainees who was determined not to have been an enemy combatant during his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[4] They report that Boucetta has been released.

The Ottawa Citizen speculates that Boucetta may be one of a select number of detainees under consideration for an offer of Asylum.^[5]

[edit] Release

Three of the remaining Guantanamo captives who were determined not to have been enemy combatants were released to Albania in November 2006.^[6]^[7]^[8] The men were not identified, other than by nationality. One of the released men was an Algerian. They were reported to have been the last of the men classified as "no longer enemy combatants to have remained in custody.

[edit] UN refugee status

An article in the Kansas City Star describes how the United Nations High Commission for Refugees only learned in December 2006 that the Americans had been holding internationally protected refuguees in Guantanamo.^[9] The article says the UNHCR wrote the Pentagon, on December 20, 2006, seeking information on why Mammar Ameur and Mohammed Sulaymon Barre were being detained in Guantanamo. The article stated that Fethi Boucetta, was also an internationally protected refugee, and that the Americans had transferred him to Albania. The article added that Boucetta was a medical doctor.