Richard Belmar

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Richard Belmar is a citizen of the United Kingdom who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.[1] His Guantanamo detainee ID number is 817. The Department of Defense reports that he was born on October 31, 1979, in London, England.

Contents

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a trailer the size of a large RV. The captive sat on a plastic garden chair, with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor. Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed. The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.(December 2007)Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved.
Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a trailer the size of a large RV. The captive sat on a plastic garden chair, with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor.[2][3] Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.[4]
The neutrality of this section is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.(December 2007)
Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved.

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.

Belmar chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[5] Belmar was unusually candid with the Tribunal.

[edit] Allegations

The allegations Belmar faced, during his Tribunal, were:

The detainee is associated with the Taliban and al Qaida forces.
  1. The detainee is a citizen of the United Kingdom who traveled to Afghanistan to flee criminal prosecution and receive military training.
  2. The detainee traveled from the United Kingdom to Kandahar, Afghanistan around July 2001, via the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan.
  3. The detainee stayed at a house in Kabul, Afghanistan and received training in the assembling and disassembling of the AK47.
  4. The detainee traveled to a terrorist training camp around 21 July 2001.
  5. The detainee received basic weapons, war tactics, and navigation training at a terrorist training camp.
  6. The detainee conducted guard duty with a Kalishnikov [sic] rifle at the front gate of a terrorist training camp.
  7. The detainee was in contact with Usama Bin Laden while at a terrorist training camp.
  8. The detainee stated he had one opportunity to fight the Northern Alliance forces in Kabul, Afghanistan.
  9. The detainee was arrested by the Pakistani local authorities on 07 February 2002.
  10. The detainee swore a bayat (oath or promise) to Usama Bin Laden.

[edit] Enemy Combatant

Belmar was repatriated to the United Kingdom. The Tribunal determined that Belmar was appropriately classified as an "enemy combatant".

[edit] Testimony

Belmar acknowledged fleeing the United Kingdom, because he thought he might have been charged with being an accessory after the fact for manslaughter. He denied traveling to Afghanistan for military training. But he acknowledged accepting a limited amount of military training, so his hosts wouldn't "diss" him for not being a man.

Belmar denied pulling guard duty.

Like several other detainees Belmar acknowledged attending a large meeting where he heard Bin Laden speak. Like those other detainees the allegations against him describe hearing Bin Laden speak as "meeting" Bin Laden.

Belmar acknowledged being asked to fight the Northern Alliance, but he said he made an excuse to avoid combat duty.

Belmar denied ever swearing a bayat to Bin Laden.

During the Question and Answer portion of his Tribunal the Tribunal officers asked him a number of questions about Abu Qatada, a muslim cleric who had been living in the United Kingdom. A relationship with Qatada seems to have been the sole reason Bisher Amin Khalil Al-Rawi, another UK resident, ended up at Guantanamo Bay. Belmar acknowledged attending a couple of prayer sessions lead by Qatada, when he had been too late to attend the prayer sessions at his regular mosque.

The Tribunal determined that Belmar had been appropriately classified as an "enemy combatant". But, like the other nine UK citizens held at Guantanamo Bay, he was repatriated to the UK, where he was promptly released after a brief debriefing.

[edit] References

  1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
  2. ^ Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court, New York Times, November 11, 2004 - mirror
  3. ^ Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004
  4. ^ Annual Administrative Review Boards for Enemy Combatants Held at Guantanamo Attributable to Senior Defense Officials. United States Department of Defense (March 6, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-09-22.
  5. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Richard Dean Belmar's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 10-17