Wasm Awwad Omar Al-Wasm

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Wasm Awwad Omar Al-Wasm is a citizen of Saudi Arabia held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1][2]

[edit] Identity

Wasm Awwad Omar Al-Wasm's name became known when he was repatriated, with thirteen other men, on June 25, 2006.^[2] According to the DoD that list of 759 names listed all the captives who had been held, in military custody, in Guantanamo.

Main article: Guantanamo detainees missing from the official list

[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 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.

[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.

[edit] Guantanamo records

There is no record that Wasm Awwad Omar Al-Wasm chose to participate in either his Combatant Status Review Tribunal or his Administrative Review Board.

[edit] Repatriation

Wasm Awwad Omar Al-Wasm was repatriated on June 25, 2006, along with thirteen other Saudis.^[2]

[edit] Reference

1. ^ Thirteen Saudis and a Turkistani return to Saudi from Guantanamo, Middle East News, June 25, 2006
2. ^ ^{a b c} Fourteen Guantanamo detainees returned to the Kingdom. Royal Saudi Embassy, Washington DC (June 25, 2006). Retrieved on March 10, 2007.