Mahmud Abd Al Aziz al-Mujahid | |
---|---|
Born | August 1980 (age 43)[1][2] Taiz, Yemen |
Released | 2016-08-15 United Arab Emirates |
Citizenship | Yemen |
Detained at | Guantanamo |
ISN | 31 |
Charge(s) | extrajudicial detention |
Mahmoud Abd Al Aziz Abd Al Mujahid is a Yemeni citizen who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camp, in Cuba, for over fourteen and a half years, from January 11, 2002, to August 15, 2016.[3][4] His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 31. Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts report that he was born in August 1980, in Taiz, Yemen.
He arrived in the first cohort of twenty individuals who opened the prison.[4] The Guantanamo Joint Review Task Force classed him as a "forever prisoner", in 2009.[5][6] He was transferred to United Arab Emirates, with fourteen other men, on August 15, 2016.[7][8]
Originally, the Bush Presidency asserted that captives apprehended in the "war on terror" were not covered by the Geneva Conventions, and could be held indefinitely, without charge, and without an open and transparent review of the justifications for their detention.[9] In 2004, the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, that Guantanamo captives were entitled to being informed of the allegations justifying their detention, and were entitled to try to refute them.
Following the Supreme Court's ruling the Department of Defense set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants.[9][12]
Scholars at the Brookings Institution, led by Benjamin Wittes, listed the captives still held in Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain common allegations:[13]
Al Mujahid chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunals.[14]
On April 25, 2011, whistleblower organization WikiLeaks published formerly secret assessments drafted by Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts.[15][16] His ten-page Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment was drafted on March 8, 2008.[17] It was signed by camp commandant Rear Admiral Mark H. Buzby. He recommended continued detention.