Mohammed Souleimani Laalami

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Mohammed Souleimani Laalami (born March 4, 1965) is a citizen of Morocco, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] Laalami's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 237. The Department of Defense reports he was born on March 4, 1965, in Casablanca, Morocco.

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

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

[edit] allegations

Most detainee's transcripts included the allegations against the detainee -- Mohammed's did not.

[edit] testimony

Mohammed was confused over whether the Tribunal was a court of law, and wanted to know what crimes he was being charged with.

Mohammed denied that he was recruited in Morocco. Mohammed denied that he being trained at the al Farouq training camp. He claimed he made these confessions, in Afghanistan, when he was first captured, and was being beaten and threatened with death. He claimed both Afghans and Americans beat him during his interrogations in Afghanistan.

He denied being captured by the Northern Alliance in Tora Bora. He denied ever being in Tora Bora. He was captured in a village near Jalalabad. He denied possessing any weapons.

Mohammed traveled to Afghanistan, with his family, on a religious pilgrimage. When asked if he visited holy sites in Afghanistan he explained: "Pilgrimage can mean it is for religion, but I meant when you leave a place for good it is a pilgrimage."

[edit] Moroccan conviction

On November 10, 2006 Laalami and two other Moroccans said to be former Guantanamo detainees, were sentenced by a Moroccan court.^[3]^[4]^[5] Laalami, was sentenced for a five year term, for starting a "criminal group". The other two Moroccans, named Najib Mohammad Lahassimi and Mohammed Ouali, were sentenced to three years for falsifying documents.