Abdel Hadi Mohammed Badan Al Sebaii Sebaii

Infobox WoT detainees
subject_name = Abdel Hadi Mohammed Badan Al Sebaii Sebaii

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image_size =
image_caption = | date_of_birth = Birth date|1971|08|23
place_of_birth = El Kharg, Saudi Arabia
date_of_arrest =
place_of_arrest= | arresting_authority=
date_of_release = | place_of_release=
date_of_death = | place_of_death =
citizenship = | detained_at = Guantanamo
id_number = 064
group =
alias =
charge = no charge, held in extrajudicial detention
penalty =
status = repatriated
csrt_summary =
csrt_transcript=
occupation = | spouse = | parents = | children =

Abdel Hadi Mohammed Badan Al Sebaii Sebaii is a citizen of Saudi Arabia, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf
title=List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
date=May 15 2006
accessdate=2007-09-29] His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 064.The Department of Defense reports Sebaii was born on August 23 1971, in El Kharg, Saudi Arabia.

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

] Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.cite web
url=http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=3902
title=Annual Administrative Review Boards for Enemy Combatants Held at Guantanamo Attributable to Senior Defense Officials
publisher=United States Department of Defense
date=March 6 2007
accessdate=2007-09-22] ]

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.

ummary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Abdel Hadi Mohammed Badan Al Sebaii Sebaii'sCombatant Status Review Tribunal, on 25 September 2004.cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/000001-000100.pdf#78
title=Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Sebaii, Abdel Hadi Mohammed Badan Al Sebaii
date=25 September 2004
pages=page 78
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2008-01-19] The memo listed the following allegations against him: :

Transcript

Abdel Hadi Mohammed Badan Al Sebaii Sebaiichose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. cite web
url=http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt/Set_3_0205-0319_Revised.pdf#45
title=Summarized Statement
date=date redacted
pages=pages 45-55
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2008-01-20] The Department of Defense released an eleven page summarized transcript on March 3 2006.

Confusion over the difference between a Tribunal and a Court of law

Sebaii expressed confusion over the difference between a Tribunal and a court of law.And continued to express confusion over the Tribunal procedure throughout the session.

Witness requests

Sebaii requested two witnesses.

Sebaii requested a statement from the Saudi Minister of the Interior confirming that he was a Saudi Police Officer, and he requested a statement from the Saudi ambassador to Sudan, confirming he was working there as a humanitarian volunteer.The Tribunal's President had ruled that these witnesses were not relevant. He ruled that Sebaii's previous employment was not relevant.Sebaii asked, if his activities in 1996 were not relevant, why was the fourth allegation against him that he was suspected of fighting in Bosnia in 1996.

The Tribunal's President admitted they couldn't explain the presence of the allegation of his activities in 1996, and the Tribunal would ignore it.

Testimony

Al Sebai disputed the allegation that he was captured while he crossed the border. He had fled to Pakistan to escape anti-Arab retribution. He had already crossed into Pakistan, and was seeking help contacting the Saudi embassy. When Pakistani soldiers appeared in the village where he had spent the night, he prompty turned himself in to them.

Al Sebai denied working for al Haramain. He said he donated twenty days volunteering for them. So far as he knew they were a legitimate charity, that worked on legitimate humanitarian purposes. Al Sebai pointed out to the Tribunal that he had requested documentation to confirm that the twenty days he volunteered helping refugees after a flood, in Sudan, was a purely humanitarian activity, and this documentation was part of what his Tribunal’s President had ruled “irrelevant”.

Al Sebai’s Personal Representative pointed out that during 1996/1997, when Al Sebai volunteered his twenty days aiding flood victims, al Haramain had not yet fallen under any suspicion of being subverted by terrorist sympathizers.

Although the Tribunal’s President decided to rule out the allegation that he was captured in Bosnia, Al Sebai’s Personal Representative pointed out that Al Sebai was serving as a Police officer in Saudi Arabia, at the time he was alleged to have been captured in Bosnia, and that this could be document through his Police personnel records.

Al Sebai pointed out that he was a decorated veteran of the Gulf War.

Al Sebai said that he had seen his passport a year prior to his Tribunal. Al Sebai’s Personal Representative drew the Tribunal’s attention to Exhibit D-B, a report from the evidence room confirming that his ticket and passport confirmed Al Sebai’s account of his travel.

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.

ummary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Abdel Hadi Mohamme Badan Al Sebaii Sebaii's first annualAdministrative Review Board, on
18 July 2005.cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/ARB_Round_1_Factors_000001-000098.pdf#94
title=Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Sebai, Abdel Hadi Mohamme Badan Al Sebaii
date=18 July 2005
pages=pages 94-95
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2008-01-19] The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention.

The following primary factors favor continued detention:

:

The following primary factors favor release or transfer:

::The detainee states, "He never thought America would attack Afghanistan".

Transcript

His Board convened on August 11 2005. He did not participate in the hearing. But he had asnwered question when he met with his Assisting Military Officer. Although his Assisting Military Officer's presentation would have occurred during the unclassified session the DoD did not release a transcript of that session.

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.cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/ARB_Round_1_Decision_memos_000001-000095.pdf#24
title=Administrative Review Board assessment and recommendation ICO ISN 064
date=November 4 2005
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2008-01-20
pages=page] cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/ARB_Round_1_Decision_memos_000001-000095.pdf#25
title=Classified Record of Proceedings and basis of Administrative Review Board recommendation for ISN 064
date=August 11 2005
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2008-01-20
pages=pages 25-29] The Board's recommendation was unanimousThe Board's recommendation was redacted.Page 1 of the six pages of his Classified Record of Proceedings and basis of Administrative Review Board recommendations wasn't redacted, it was simply missing.England authorized his transfer on November 4 2005.

Press reports

Canadian journalist, and former special assistant to US President George W. Bush, David Frum, published an article based on his own reading of the transcripts from the Combatant Status Review Tribunals, on November 11 2006.cite news
url=http://frum.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTQxMWVkMjJlNWZiMmE3ZmRlYTM5MDU4ZWFlOTQxOGY=
title=Gitmo Annotated
date=November 11 2006
publisher=National Review
author=David Frum
accessdate=2007-04-23] It was Frum who coined the term "Axis of evil" for use in a speech he wrote for Bush. Al Sebaii's transcript was one of the nine Frum briefly summarized.His comment on Al Sebaii was:

Frum came to the conclusion that all nine of the men whose transcript he summarized had obviously lied. He did not, however, state how he came to the conclusion they lied.His article concluded with the comment:

Thomas P. Sullivan's testimony before the US Senate Judiciary Committee

Thomas P. Sullivan volunteered to serve as a pro bono attorney for several Guantanamo captives, includingAl Sebaii.cite web
url=http://judiciary.senate.gov/testimony.cfm?id=2416&wit_id=5772
title=Statement regarding the proposed Military Commissions bill
date=September 25 2006
publisher=United States Senate Judiciary Committee
author=Thomas P. Sullivan
accessdate=April 21
accessyear=2007] On September 26 2006 he testified before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee, expressing his concerns about the the bill that was to Military Commissions Act.Sullivan testified, at length about his experiences with his Guantanamo clients, including Al Sebaii. Sullivan quoted from the transcript from Al Sebaii's Combatant Status Review Tribunal during his testimony.

During his statement Sullivan testified: quotation|"There is a shameful inconsistency involved here. It is difficult to believe the members of Congress intend to enact a law in which the few prisoners who are deemed by the government to be truly the "worst of the worst" will be charged and tried by the commissions, and accorded the full panoply of rights specified in the legislation creating the military commissions. Yet those rights have not been - and will not be - made available to any of the hundreds of other prisoners, including many whom we believe to have been innocent bystanders, captured and sold five years ago by the Northern Alliance to our government."

Repatriation

According to The Saudi Repatriates Report Al Sebai was repatriated on May 19 2006.cite web
url=http://www.fotofest.org/guantanamo/SaudiReport.pdf
title=The Saudi Repatriates Report
author=Anant Raut, Jill M. Friedman
date=March 19 2007
accessdate=April 21
accessyear=2007]

References