Majeed Abdullah Al Joudi

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Majeed Abdullah Al Joudi
Born: 1967 (age 40–41)
Mecca
Detained at: Guantanamo
ID number: 025
Conviction(s): no charge, held in extrajudicial detention
Status Repatriated

Majeed Abdullah Al Joudi is a citizen of Saudi Arabia who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.[1] His Guantanamo detainee ID number is 25. American counter-terror analysts estimate he was born in 1967, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

Contents

[edit] Identity

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

Summary of Evidence memo prepared for his first annual Administrative Review Board, on 17 November 2005.[2][3]

  • His name was transliterated as Majeed Abdullah on the habeas corpus documents released in a dossier of Combatant Status Review Tribunal documents on July 25, 2005, and on the Summary of Evidence memo prepared for his second annual Administrative Review Board, on 7 November 2006.[4][5]
  • His name was transliterated as Majeed Abdullah Al Joudi on the official lists of names released by the US Department of Defense.[1]
  • His name was transliterated as Abdullah Majeed Al-Jodi on the press releases from Saudi officials, when he was repatriated on February 21, 2007.[6][7]
  • His name was transliterated as Majid al-Joudi and Majid Abdulla al-Joudi on documents released by the US Department of Justice.[8]
  • His name was transliterated as Majid Abdulla Al Joudi on the official list of captives whose habeas corpus petitions should be dismissed following their transfer from US custody.[9]

[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.
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.

[edit] Summary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Majid Abdallah Al Judi's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 17 August 2004.[2] The memo listed the following allegations against him:

a. Detainee is a member of the Taliban and al-Qaida.
  1. The detainee admits traveling from Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan in 2001 for the purpose of work for Al-Wafa.
  2. Al-Wafa is an organization listed in Executive Order 13224, and it has been closely associated with al-Qaida and the Taliban.
  3. Detainee was captured by U.S. forces in a hospital along with several al-Qaida members.
  4. Detaiene was captured with al-Qaida surveillance evasion reports and after-action reports.

[edit] Detainee election form

The detainee election form was dated August 19, 2004.[10] On it his Personal Representative checked the box that recorded that the captive "Affirmatively Declines to Participate in Tribunal." The Personal Representative Comments section recorded:

"Polite and does not want a PR. Stated that evidence saying he had documents at capture are false."

[edit] Administrative Review Board hearings

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] First annual Administrative Review Board

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Majid Abdallah Al Judi's first annual Administrative Review Board, on 17 November 2005.[3] The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention.

[edit] Transcript

There is no record that captive 25 chose to participate in his first annual Administrative Review Board.

[edit] Second annual Administrative Review Board

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Majeed Abdullah's second annual Administrative Review Board, on 7 November 2006.[5] The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention.

[edit] Transcript

Captive 25 attended his second annual Board hearing.[11]

  • Captive 25 acknowledged being encouraged to go to Afghanistan to do humanitarian work.
  • Captive 25 acknowledged that his travel expenses were paid by the person who encouraged him.
  • Captive 25 denied being aware that Al-Wafa was suspected of ties to terrorism, and if he had known this, he would not have agreed to go.
  • Captive 25 said that the only actions he performed were visiting villages to distribute food.
  • Captive 25 said he never stayed in any al Qaida houses.
  • Captive 25 said he was captured in a hospital run by al Qaida because he was struck by a car, and bystanders had assumed he was a foreign fighter, so had taken him to the hospital for foreign fighters.
  • Captive 25 denied that the incriminating documents that were alleged to have been associated with him were connected with him. He suggested that they might have belonged to some patient who had died.
  • Captive 25 said he didn't think it was his place to take sides in Afghanistan's politics.
  • Captive 25 said he was one of the Guantanamo captives who never supported Osama bin Laden, who he described as "doing [things that] do not represent the Muslim people.

[edit] Board recommendations

In early September 2007 the Department of Defense released two heavily redacted memos, from his Board, to Gordon England, the Designated Civilian Official.[12][13] The Board's recommendation was unanimous. The Board's recommendation was redacted. England chose to transfer captive 25 to Saudi custody. on February 14, 2007.

[edit] 2005 Hunger strike

In 2005 there were two widespread hunger strike at Guantanamo.[8] Al Joudi's lawyer, Julia Tarver, filed requests with US District Court Judge Gladys Kessler, over her concern over their medical condition, and the brutality of the force feeding that Al Joudi and her other clients were receiving.

  • Tarver reported that the force feedings resulted in: "...vomiting up substantial amounts of blood."
  • Tarver reported that medical personnel were participating in interrogation sessions that used proscribed interrogation techniques.
  • Tarver said two of her clients had to be carried to her meetings with them on stretchers.

Kessler ordered the DoD to inform Tarver, within 24 hours, whenever they used force-feeding on her clients.[8] She ordered them to file weekly medical reports with Tarver, for the duration of the hunger strike.

[edit] Repatriation

Al Joudi was repatriated on February 21, 2007, along with six other Saudis.[6][7] The seven men were detained, without charge, in Hayer Prison, while Saudi justice officials determined whether they had violated any Saudi laws.[14]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
  2. ^ a b OARDEC (17 August 2004). Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Al Judi, Majid Abdallah page 22. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-12-03.
  3. ^ a b OARDEC (17 November 2005). Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Al Judi, Majid Abdallah pages 14-15. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-12-03.
  4. ^ Majeed Abdullah v. George W. Bush pages 1-20. United States Department of Defense (July 25, 2005). Retrieved on 2007-12-03.
  5. ^ a b OARDEC (7 November 2006). Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Abdullah, Majeed pages 23-25. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-12-03.
  6. ^ a b Seven Saudi Guantanamo detainees return to the Kingdom. Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, Washington DC (February 21, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-03-03.
  7. ^ a b "Saudi terror suspects go home", United Press International, February 22, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-03-03. 
  8. ^ a b c Attorneys for Gitmo Detainees on Hunger Strike Win Court Order to Receive Medical Records. Center for Constitutional Rights. Retrieved on 2007-04-09.
  9. ^ "Exhibit B: List Of Enemy Combatant Detainees With Pending Habeas Corpus Petitions Who Have Been Released From United States Custody", United States Department of Justice, April 17, 2007. Retrieved on 2008-05-05. 
  10. ^ Detainee election form page 9. United States Department of Defense (August 19, 2004). Retrieved on 2007-12-03.
  11. ^ OARDEC (November 2006). Summary of Administrative Review Board Proceedings of ISN 25 page2 13-23. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-12-03.
  12. ^ OARDEC (December 30, 2006). Administrative Review Board assessment and recommendation ICO ISN 25 page 1. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-12-03.
  13. ^ OARDEC (17 November 2006). Classified Record of Proceedings and basis of Administrative Review Board recommendation for ISN 25 pages 2-8. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-12-03.
  14. ^ P.K. Abdul Ghafour. "Families Meet With Gitmo Returnees", Arab News, Saturday, February 24, 2007. Retrieved on March 3.