Nahir Shah

Nahir Shah (also transliterated Zahir Shah) is a citizen of Afghanistan, who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.^[1] His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 1010. Intelligence analysts estimated he was born in 1973, in Kapisa Province, Afghanistan.

When the Department of Defense first published its first several thousand pages of transcripts from the Combatant Status Review Tribunals it did not release an index, so readers could identify which transcript was associated with which captive. Most transcripts referred to the captives as "detainee", or their names were redacted. But Zahir Shah was one of the captives' names that was published, in the clear, so he was one of the first captives to have details of his transcript published.^[2][3][4]

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

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.

Shah chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[5]

According to the BBC Shah is accused of being a member of Hizb-i-Islamia.^[6]

Allegations

During his Tribunal Nahir Shah faced the following allegations^[5]:

a. The detainee is a member of the Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin (HIG):

1. The Detainee is a citizen of Afghanistan and identified as a Hizb-I Islamic (HIG) member, possible as a Deputy Commander.
2. The Detainee admits to keeping a Kalashnikov type weapon in his home.
3. The Detainee was captured in his home in Afghanistan by United States forces conducting Weapons Cache Recovery Operations.
4. Weapons including AK-47s, RPGs, and al 07mm recoilless rifle were discovered in Detainee's home by the United States forces.
5. The Detainee had keys to all the buildings in the compound.

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.

Shah chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.^[7]

Enemy Combatant election form

The notes from Nahir Shah's Assisting Military Officer's Enemy Combatant election form state that they met for 30 minutes on November 15, 2005. He described Nahir Shah as "very polite".

The following primary factors favorcontinued detention

a. Connections/Associations

1. Due to a financial dispute with an enemy of the family, the detainee claims the individual made false accusations ot military authorities claiming that he was in possession of weapons at his home.
2. The detainee was identified as a Hizb-I-Islami Gulbuddin [sic] member who possibly held the rank of Deputy Commander. There were a large number of weapons in the compound in which he was captured.
3. The detainee became angry when accused of having a connection with someone who was in the Hizb-I-Islami Gulbuddin [sic] or someone who was considered a terrorist.

b. Other Relevant Data

1. The detainee's route of egress from Afghanistan is as follows: The detainee traveled from Tagab to Kabul to Kandahar, and then to Quetta, Pakistan. From Quetta, the detainee traveled to the Taftan area of the Iranian-Pakistani border region.^[8]
2. Joint Military personnel entered the Detainee's home and began a search for contraband items. The detainee was told that weapons had been found in his house but he countered that they were actually found at his brother's home.
3. After the detainee was seized, he recanted his original story regarding ownership of the weapons found at his house. The detainee admitted that only two of the weapons were found at his house. One weapon was a Kalashnikov and the other was a British weapon.
4. During this later recant, the detainee stated that the two weapons were used for bird hunting and went on to say that any additional weapons may be the property of his brother and that if there were any weapons, there [sic] were acquired from a Mujahadeen that was associated with his brother.

The following primary factors favor release or transfer

a.	The detainee insisted that he had been wrongly accused and implicated with the weapons.
b.	The detainee has denied ever being associated with the Hizb-I-Islami Gulbuddin [sic] or knowing somebody who was.

Guantanamo Medical records

On 16 March 2007 the Department of Defense published medical records for the captives.^[9] According to those records Nahir Shah was 69 inches tall. According to those records his weight was recorded 32 times between July 2003 and November 2006. His weight ranged from 175 to 217 pounds.

Repatriation

On November 25, 2008 the Department of Defense published a list of when Guantanamo captives were repatriated.^[10] According to that list he was repatriated on November 2, 2007. Seven other Afghans were repatriated that day, two Jordanian captives and one Libyan captive.

The Center for Constitutional Rights reports that all of the Afghans repatriated to Afghanistan from April 2007 were sent to Afghan custody in the American built and supervised wing of the Pul-e-Charkhi prison near Kabul.^[11]

Pentagon claim he had "returned to the fight"

On May 20, 2009, the New York Times, citing an unreleased Pentagon document, reported that Department of Defense officials claimed Nahir Shah was one of 74 former Guantanatmo captives who "are engaged in terrorism or militant activity."^[12][13]

References