Mohammed Mohammed Hassen

Mohammed Mohammed Hassen
Born	1983 (age 27–28) Taiz, Yemen
Arrested	March 28, 2002 Faisalabad, Pakistan
Citizenship	Yemen
Detained at	Guantanamo
Alternate name	Mohammed Mohammed Hassan Odaini
ISN	681
Status	Repatriated to Yemen
Occupation	Student

Mohammed Mohammed Hassen or Odaini (born 1983) is a citizen of Yemen unlawfully detained from age eighteen to age twenty-six in the Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1]

The United States has been detaining him all this time because it claimed that he is an enemy combatant and his release would pose a thread to the security of the country.^[2]

Nevertheless on May 26, 2010, he won his habeas corpus case and had his detention declared illegal by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. In his 36-page opinion Judge Henry H. Kennedy concludes:

Respondents have kept a young man from Yemen in detention in Cuba from age eighteen to age twenty-six. They have prevented him from seeing his family and denied him the opportunity to complete his studies and embark on a career. The evidence before the Court shows that holding Odaini in custody at such great cost to him has done nothing to make the United States more secure. There is no evidence that Odaini has any connection to al Qaeda. Consequently, his detention is not authorized by the AUMF [Authorization of the Use of Military Force]. The Court therefore emphatically concludes that Odaini's motion must be granted.

Mohammed Mohammed Hassen was released and sent back to Yemen in July 2010 after more than eight years in Guantanamo^[3][4][5]

Cleared for release but still detained

Mohammed Mohammed Hassen was cleared for release on June 26, 2006.^[6] Mark Falkoff told the Yemeni Times that he had to threaten legal action to get the Pentagon to release a list of the Yemenis who had already been cleared for release.^[7] The Yemeni Times reported that the Pentagon had cleared some of the captives for release as early as June 2004 — which precedes the first Combatant Status Review Tribunal by over a month.

Hassen was finally repatriated on July 13, 2010.^[8] Carol Rosenberg, of the Miami Herald published the recently declassified "memorandum opinion" where US District Court Judge Henry H. Kennedy explained why he ordered Hassen's release.^[9] Kennedy's opinion noted that Hassen was a student, on his first visit to other Yemeni students, staying at an off-campus student house, when he was captured. He quoted from the CSR Tribunal testimony of eleven of the other thirteen men captured in that raid: Muhammaed Yasir Ahmed Taher, Emad Abdalla Hassan, Mohammed Abdullah Taha Mattan, Abdel Ghalib Ahmad Hakim, Abdelaziz Kareem Salim al-Noofayee, Fahmi Abdullah Ahmed, Ahmed Abdul Qader, Mohammed Ali Salem Al Zarnuki, Alla Ali Bin Ali Ahmed, Omar Abu Bakr, Ravil Mingazov, Jamil Ahmed Said Nassir. Kennedy noted that all of the other men captured during the raid who were able to identify Hassen confirmed that he was just a student. Kennedy quoted from various documents prepared by military analysts that concluded, early in Hassen's detention, that he was not a threat.

References

1. ^ OARDEC (2006-05-15). "List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006". United States Department of Defense. http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf. Retrieved 2007-09-29. 
2. ^ documents (.pdf) from Mohammed Mohammed Hassen's Combatant Status Review Tribunal
3. ^ "Mohammed Odaini - The Guantánamo Docket". The New York Times. http://projects.nytimes.com/guantanamo/detainees/681-mohammed-mohammed-hassen. 
4. ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/25/AR2010062505033.html U.S. to repatriate Guantanamo detainee to Yemen after judge orders him to be released
5. ^ http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/13/1728894/us-sends-guantanamo-captive-home.html
6. ^ Tori Marlan (2007-10-04). "Growing Old in Gitmo: Two years ago the U.S. military recommended Mohamed Mohamed Hassan Odaini for release from Guantanamo prison. So why is he still there?". Chicago Reader. Archived from the original on 2009-08-23. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chicagoreader.com%2Fchicago%2Fgrowing-old-in-gitmo%2FContent%3Foid%3D926050&date=2009-08-23. 
7. ^ Amel Al-Ariqi (March 11, 2007). "Yemeni detainees are the largest group at Guantánamo". Yemen Times. http://yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=1032&p=front&a=1. Retrieved 2007-03-15. 
8. ^ Carol Rosenberg (2010-07-13). "US sends Guantánamo captive home to Yemen". Miami Herald. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/13/1728894/us-sends-guantanamo-captive-home.html. Retrieved 2010-09-20. "The Pentagon Tuesday bowed to a federal court order and sent a captive home to Yemen -- the first transfer since the Obama administration halted detainee repatriations to the Arabian Peninsula nation over the botched Christmas Day bombing."  mirror
9. ^ Henry H. Kennedy (2010-05-24). "Mahmoad Abdah v. Barack Obama -- Memorandum opinion". Department of Justice. http://media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2010/06/10/15/hassen.source.prod_affiliate.56.pdf. Retrieved 2010-09-20.  mirror

External links

• U.S. considers partially lifting ban on transfers of detainees to Yemen The Washington Post June 19, 2010
• Why is a Yemeni Student in Guantánamo, Cleared on Three Occasions, Still Imprisoned? Andy Worthington 6 June 2010
• Transcripts show confusion, ire at Guantanamo tribunals
• Government denies knowledge of 14 released Guantanamo prisoners
• Mohammed Mohammed Hassan Odaini--Cleared for release but still detained
• Judge Henry H. Kennedy's opinion (redacted)
• Human Rights First; Habeas Works: Federal Courts’ Proven Capacity to Handle Guantánamo Cases (2010)

Persondata
Name	Hassen, Mohammed Mohammed
Alternative names
Short description	Guantanamo detainees known to have been released
Date of birth	1983
Place of birth	Taiz, Yemen
Date of death
Place of death