Abdullah bin Amor

Infobox WoT detainees
subject_name = Abdullah Bin Omar

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image_size =
image_caption = | date_of_birth = Birth date|1958|06|28
place_of_birth = Massoulta, Tunisia
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 = 721
group =
alias =
charge = convicted in absentia in Tunis -- didn't know about the Tunisian conviction when returned to Tunisia.
penalty =
status =
csrt_summary =
csrt_transcript=
occupation = | spouse = | parents = | children =

Abdullah Bin Omar is a citizen of Tunisia formerly 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 721.
Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analystsreport he was born on June 28 1958, in
Massoulta, Tunisia.

He is now serving a 12-year sentence in Tunisia for some involvement with "Front Islamique de Tunisie" in the 1990'sDepartment 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 Abdullah Bin Omar'sCombatant Status Review Tribunal, on 3 November 2004.cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/000500-000599.pdf#89
title=Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Omar, Abdullah Bin
date=3 November 2004
pages=page 89
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2008-05-06] The memo listed the following allegations against him: :

econd annual Administrative Review Board

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Abdullah Bin Omar'ssecond annual Administrative Review Board, on 25 April 2006.cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/ARB_Round_2_Factors_700-798.pdf#89
title=Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Omar, Abdullah Bin
date=25 April 2006
pages=pages 89-91
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2008-05-05] 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:

:

Transcript and missing documents

The decision documents from his second Review Board was heavily redacted. One unredacted paragraph, entitled: "Written and/or Oral Testimony from the EC", stated:quotation
When questioning the EC why he did not want to attend the ARB, the EC stated,"I am not ready to appear or have any desire to appear before the board. Some of these allegations are new to me and are made up stories."The EC provided comments in response to the information in the Unclassified Summary of Evidence. These comments are documented in Exhibit EC-B

No transcript was published from the unclassified session of his hearing. Neither was his written response to the factors published.

The Department of Defense has not offered an explanation as to why the the documents were withheld.

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_2_Decision_memos_359-450.pdf#74
title=Administrative Review Board assessment and recommendation ICO ISN 721
date=30 September 2006
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2008-05-05
pages=page 74] cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/ARB_Round_2_Decision_memos_359-450.pdf#75
title=Classified Record of Proceedings and basis of Administrative Review Board recommendation for ISN 721
date=5 May 2006
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2008-05-05
pages=pages 75-81] The Board's recommendation was unanimousThe Board's recommendation was redacted.England authorized his transfer on 10 October 2006.

Guantanamo records

There is no record that Bin Omar chose to participate in either his Combatant Status Review Tribunal or his Administrative Review Board.

Captive 721 had at least two habeas corpus petitions submitted on his behalf.cite web
url=http://www.pegc.us/archive/OK_v_Bush/govt_resp_to_GK_20060815.pdf
title=Respondents' response to Court's August 7, 2006 order
date=August 15 2006
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2008-06-23] The Department of Defensepublished documents from 179 Guantanamo captives' Combatant Status Review Tribunals.cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/index_publicly_filed_CSRT_records.pdf
title=Index for CSRT Records Publicly Files in Guantanamo Detainee Cases
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
date=August 8 2007
accessdate=2007-09-29] The Department did not publish documents from any of captive 721's habeas cases.

Release

On March 9 2007 Christopher Chang, of the human rights group Reprieve announced that the US Government had agreed to release Bin Omar.cite news
url=http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?id=4860160
publisher=International Herald Tribune
title=U.S to release Tunisian held in Guantanamo, London-based humanitarian group says
date=Friday, March 9, 2007]

On June 19 2007 six men were released from Guantanamo.cite news
url=http://www.miamiherald.com/416/story/144779.html
title=Six more detainees leave Guantánamo
publisher=Miami Herald
date=June 19 2007
author=Carol Rosenberg
accessdate=2007-06-19] According to the "Miami Herald", the Center for Constitutional Rights identified one of the men as Abdullah Bin Omar. They said he was 51 years old, not 48 as the DoD claimed.

Tunisian detention

Clive Stafford Smith has reported that Abdullah Bin Omar has been tortured since he returned to Tunisia.cite news
url=http://www.newstatesman.com/200707120031
title=From Guantanamo to worse
publisher=New Statesman
author=Clive Stafford Smith
date=July 12, 2007
accessdate=2007-07-12] Stafford Smith reported that Tunisian interrogators have threatened to rape Abdullah Bin Omar's wife and daughter.

Stafford Smith wrote that he was in Guantanamo, waiting to meet with Abdullah Bin Omar, when he received an email, informing him that, since his arrival at Guantanamo, he had been repatriated to Tunisia.

Jennifer Daskal, writing in the "Washington Post", reported that after several days of abusive interrogation and sleep deprivation, he was forced to sign some kind of document, even though his vision had deteriotaed to the extent he couldn't read it, and had no idea what it said.cite news
url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/31/AR2007083101463.html
title=A Fate Worse Than Guantanamo
page=B03
publisher=Washington Post
author=Jennifer Daskal
date=Sunday, September 2, 2007
accessdate=2008-05-05
quote=]

Abdullah al-Hajji Ben Amor was convicted on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 of belonging to terrorist organization. cite news
url=http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/11/tunisia-court-convicts-former.php
title=Tunisia court convicts former Guantanamo Bay detainee on terror charges
publisher=The Jurist
author=Caitlin Price
date=Wednesday, November 14, 2007
accessdate=2007-11-18] He was sentenced to seven years imprisonment.

Human Rights Watch reports that in 1995 he was convicted in absentia on the same charge.cite news
url=http://hrw.org/reports/2007/tunisia0907/2.htm#_Toc175903611
title=Abdullah al-Hajji Ben Amor
publisher=Human Rights Watch
accessdate=2007-11-18] Human Rights Watch reports that: quotation
"...neither the Tunisians nor Americans ever informed him of the 1995 conviction before sending him home."

References