Sami Abdul Aziz Salim Allaithy

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Sami Abdul Aziz Salim Allaithy (born October 28, 1956) is a citizen of Egypt, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1]

1 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
2 Repatriation to Egypt
3 References
4 External links

Al Laithi's detainee ID number is 287. He was born on October 28, 1956 in Shubrakass Egypt.^[1]

Prior to the Invasion of Afghanistan Al Laithi was teaching English and Arabic at Kabul University.

During his stay at Camp Delta Al Laithi was rendered a paraplegic.^[2] Al Laithi says shortly after his arrival in Cuba, during a beating administered in the prison hospital, a guard threw him on the floor, and stomped on his back. He says he has been in constant pain ever since.

Al Laithi says the beating crushed two of his vertebrae, confining him to a wheelchair. He says he believes that the prison authorities denied him medical care that would have prevented him being crippled.

Al Laithi is one of the small percentage of Guantanamo detainees who, during his Combatant Status Review Tribunal, was determined not to have been an "enemy combatant" after all.

Al Laithi has a long record of criticism of the Egyptian government. He does not wish the Americans to return him to Egypt, now that they have determined that he has no ties to terrorism. As of September 2005 he remained confined to Camp Delta.

Al Laithi's lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, has asked for Al Laithi to get medical care for his injuries, for the release of his prison medical records, and for him to be released from solitary confinement. Al Lathi remained in solitary confinement, after he had been determined to have been an innocent bystander, unlike the detainees who had been determined to have been Chinese dissidents, who were housed in the more amenable Camp Iguana.

[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 U.S. 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.

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

[edit] Allegations

The allegations that Allaithy faced in his Tribunal were:

a The detainee is associated with Al Qaeda and is a Taliban fighter.

Detainee was recruited to fight in Kashmir and Chechnya by a Jihadist recruiter in Saudi Arabia.
Detainee joined the Taliban after receiving a Fatwa from Sheik Ha Al-Uqla at the Iman Muhammad Bin Saud College in Burayda, Saudi Arabia.
Detainee trained at Al Farouq training camp in Afghanistan during September 2001.
Detainee was trained on the Kalashnikov rifle, Pakistan machine gun, and a Russian pistol at the Al Farouq training camp.
One of detainee’s known aliases was on a list of captured Al Qaeda member that was discovered on a computer hard drive associated with a senior Al Qaeda member.

b The detainee participated in military operations against the coalition.

Detainee was a fighter at Tora Bora.

[edit] Testimony

Allaithy denied any association with Al Qaida or the Taliban. He had gone to Afghanistan to teach English and Arabic, not religious topics.

He acknowledged trying to lie about his identity when he tried to cross the Pakistan border. He did so because he feared being returned to Egypt. He had not been a part of any movement in Egypt. But he had been a vocal advocate of openness and democracy, and this made him a marked man in Egypt. His passport had expired, so he couldn't leave Pakistan, except to go to Afghanistan, where, under the Taliban, there was no border control.

He denied fighting or ever bearing any weapons.

[edit] Determination

Allaithy was one of the 38 detainees determined "no longer enemy combatant" (see the article for an explanation of this phrase).

[edit] Repatriation to Egypt

In early October American authorities announced that they had repatriated an Egyptian national back to his home country. Press reports quoted American authorities as saying that the Egyptian had been determined to no longer pose a security threat through an "Administrative Review" -- the follow-on to the Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

But on October 5, 2005, a Washington Post article positively identified the Egyptian being repatriated as Al Laithi. The Post quoted Command Flex Plexico, who said:

"Prior to returning this detainee to Egypt, the United States received appropriate assurances from the government of Egypt regarding this detainee's treatment upon his return to Egypt. This includes assurances that this individual will continue to be treated humanely, in accordance with Egyptian and international legal obligations, while he remains in Egypt," Plexico said.

According to the article Pentagon spokesmen claimed:

"This individual's current health problems resulted from an injury sustained before our involvement with him. According to the detainee's statements to us, his injury was sustained in an automobile accident, and the damage has progressed over time," Plexico said.

"There are no indications that his condition was adversely affected by his detention."

Al Laithi was interviewed by a reporter for Al Ahram on October 26, 2005.^[4] In his interview he said that before he was repatriated to Egypt he was sent, briefly, to an American hospital, for an assessment. He reports that the medical records he was given, upon his repatriation, say the loss of the use of his legs was progressive, not sudden. They say it was the result of a traffic accident, before his detention. Al Laithi continues to claim the loss was due to brutal treatment while in custody. He claims the records are a forgery.