Hukumra Khan

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Hukumra Khan is a citizen of Afghanistan, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] His detainee ID number is 1157.

1 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
2 Determined not to have been an Enemy Combatant
3 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 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 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.

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

Hukumra Khan requested three witnesses.

[edit] witness requests

The Tribunal President decided since they would all testify to the same facts they would only allow one witness. Three requests were made to the State Department to contact the detainee’s father - without success. So the witness was ruled “not reasonably available”. Khan thought that his witness could testify that his family shared two rifles with his uncle; that the satellite phone was used to call family

[edit] allegation

Khan’s transcript records just a single allegation.

a The detainee is associated with the Taliban

The detainee was arrested with a satellite phone, 3 AK-47's, 2 passports, and various satellite phone accessories.

[edit] testimony

Khan said that he had spent much of the fifteen years prior to his capture working in foreign countries, including Saudi Arabia.

He acknowledged having two passports. But they were both in his own name. When he was working in foreign countries during the Taliban regime he had a passport issued by the Taliban government. And when Hamid Karzai formed a new government he had to get a new passport.

In Afghanistan each household is allowed one AK-47. The three AK-47s were found in the tent where he was living, his father’s house and his uncle’s house.

In the transcript he acknowledged owning a phone, which he referred to as both a mobile phone and a satellite phone. He said he paid between 100 Saudi Riyals and 3,000 Saudi Riyals - the price of a cell phone, not a satellite phone.

A corrupt policeman had seized his phone, and had demanded a bribe of 100,000 Khaldars for its return. He paid the corrupt policeman 17,000. But after three days the policeman got impatient, and denounced him to the Americans, saying he was a member of the Taliban, who owned a satellite phone.

When the Americans arrived they demanded he produce the satellite phone. When he said he didn’t have it, that the corrupt policeman had it they searched the homes of all his family members and sent him to Guantanamo.

[edit] Determined not to have been an Enemy Combatant

The Washington Post reports that Khan was one of 38 detainees who was determined not to have been an enemy combatant during his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[3] They report that Khan has been released. The Department of Defense refers to these men as No Longer Enemy Combatants.