Nawaf Fahad Al Otaibi

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Nawaf Fahad Al Otaibi is a citizen of Saudi Arabia who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] His detainee ID number is 501. The Department of Defense reports Al Otaibi was born on July 1, 1972, in Riyadh Saudi Arabia.

1 Identity
2 Detained in adult custody, even though he was a minor
3 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
4 Administrative Review Board hearing
- 4.1 The following primary factors favor continued detention:
- 4.2 The following primary factors favor release or transfer:
5 Repatriation
6 References

[edit] Identity

The official documents from the US Department of Defense, and from the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, Washington DC transliterate Al Otaibi's name differntly:

His name was transliterated as Nawaf Fahad Al Otaibi on the official lists of names released by the US Department of Defense.^[1]
His name was transliterated as Nawaf bin Fahd Homoud Al-Otaibi on the press releases from Saudi officials, when he was repatriated on May 19, 2006.^[2]

[edit] Detained in adult custody, even though he was a minor

On June 15, 2005 Human Rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith identified Al Otaibi as one of a dozen teenage boys held in the adult portion of the prison. ^[3] According to Smith Al Otaibi was born in November 1987. Smith observed that official US documents referred to his dozen minors solely by their initials, because US law prohibit identifying minors. Official documents referred to Al Otaibi as NAO.

Main article: minors detained in the global war on terror

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunal notice read to a Guantanamo captive. During the period July 2004 through March 2005 a Combatant Status Review Tribunal was convened to make a determination whether they had been correctly classified as an "enemy combatant". Participation was optional. The Department of Defense reports that 317 of the 558 captives who remained in Guantanamo, in military custody, attended their Tribunals.

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.

There is no record that Al Otaibi chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

[edit] Administrative Review Board hearing

Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board hearings. The Administrative Review Boards weren't authorized to review whether a detainee qualified for POW status, and they weren't authorized to review whether a detainee should have been classified as an "enemy combatant".

They were authorized to consider whether a detainee should continue to be detained by the United States, because they continued to pose a threat -- or whether they could safely be repatriated to the custody of their home country, or whether they could be set free.

The factors for and against continuing to detain Al Otaibi were among the 121 that the Department of Defense released on March 3, 2006.^[4]

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a. Training

The detainee traveled to Afghanistan to train at a Libyan camp.

b. Connection/Associations ^[sic]

The detainee stayed at a Taliban house while in route ^[sic] to Afghanistan.
The detainee was identified as being captured in Tora Bora.
The detainee's name was listed on a file seized from an al Qaida safehouse.

c. Intent

The detainee traveled from his home in Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan in June 2001.

[edit] The following primary factors favor release or transfer:

The detainee stated that if given the opportunity he would return to Saudi Arabia to reside with his family members and seek employment as a school teacher.
The detainee stated that while he was in Afghanistan, he did not receive any training and never possessed a weapon.

[edit] Repatriation

The Saudi embassy announced that a Saudi named Nawaf bin Fahd Homoud Al-Otaibi was one of fifteen Guantanamo captives repatriated to Saudi Arabia on May 19, 2006.^[2]