Abdallah Muhammad Salih Al Ghanimi

Abdallah Muhammad Salih Al Ghanimi is a citizen of Saudi Arabia who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. [http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf list of prisoners (.pdf)] , "US Department of Defense", May 15 2006] cite news
url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/17/AR2007031701378.html
title=Saudi Arabia Routinely Frees Detainees: Release of Guantanamo Prisoners Undermines U.S. Claims of Threat, Analysis Says
author=Joby Warrick
publisher=Washington Post
date=Sunday, March 18, 2007
accessdate=2007-05-22] His Guantanamo Internee Security Number was 266.American counter-terrorism analysts estimate he was born in 1974, in Rabug, Saudi Arabia.

Press reports

* The "Washington Post" reports that Al Ghanimi was "... an accused al-Qaeda member who refused to speak to his captors, much less admit or deny terrorism links."
* According to the Washington Post Al Ghanimi was repatriated to Saudi Arabia on June 24 2006, and quickly released.

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.

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.

Guantanamo records

There is no record that Al Ghanimi chose to participate in either his Combatant Status Review Tribunal or his Administrative Review Board hearing.

Repatriation

According to The Saudi Repatriates Report Al Ghanimi has been repatriated.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