Abdul Salam Gaithan Mureef Al Shehry

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Abdul Salam Gaithan Mureef Al Shehry (also transliterated Abd Al Salam Ghaytan Murayyif Al Zayda Al Shihri) is a citizen of Saudi Arabia, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] His Guantanamo detainee ID number is 132. The US Department of Defense reports that he was born on December 14, 1984, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

1 Identity
2 Press reports
3 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
4 Witness
5 Administrative Review Board hearing
6 Transfer to Saudi Arabia
7 References

[edit] Identity

The Department of Defense asserts that Al Shehry was born on December 14, 1984, in Riyadh.^[1] An article by human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, entitled, "The kids of Guantanamo", published on June 15, 2005 stated he was born in April 1987.^[2]

Main article: Guantanamo detainees whose identity is in doubt

Main article: minors detained in the global war on terror

[edit] Press reports

In January 2005, his family received a letter from al Shehry.^[3] He apologized for his errors in traveling to Afghanistan and asked them to find him a wife. Al Shehry's attorney, Kateb al Shammary, argues that the fact that his client is seeking a fiance demonstrates his innocence.

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a small trailer, the same width, but shorter, than a mobile home. The Tribunal's President sat in the big chair. The detainee sat with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor in the white, plastic garden chair. A one way mirror behind the Tribunal President allowed observers to observe clandestinely. In theory the open sessions of the Tribunals were open to the press. Three chairs were reserved for them. In practice the Tribunal only intermittently told the press that Tribunals were being held. And when they did they kept the detainee's identities secret. In practice almost all Tribunals went unobserved.

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.

Al Shehry chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[4]

[edit] Witness

Al Shehri and his Tribunal's President had dialogue about Al Shehri's witness requests.

Al Shehri said he thought his Personal Representative had told him he couldn't call any off-island witnesses. Al Shehri's Personal Representative said he thought Al Shehri had changed his mind about calling off-island witnesses.

The allegations against Al Shehri originally stated that he traveled to Afghanistan after September 11, 2001. Al Shehri said that if he had been allowed to call the witnesses he wanted he could have proven he traveled to Afghanistan prior to September 11, 2001. Al Shehri Tribunal recessed. When it reconvened Al Shehri was told the Tribunal would assume he had traveled to Afghanistan prior to September 11, 2001.

[edit] Allegations

The allegations Al Shehri faced during his Tribunal were:

a. The detainee is a member of Al Qaida and the Taliban.

The detainee traveled to Afghanistan after 11 September 2001.
The detainee assisted anti-coalition troops while at a Taliban Center near Khwajajaghar, Afghanistan.
The detainee received weapons training in Afghanistan.
One of the detainee's known aliases was on a list of captured Al Qaida members that was discovered on a computer hard drive in an alleged Al Qaida residence.

b. The detainee participated in military operations against the coalition.

The detainee admitted he went to Afghanistan to fight.
The detainee was captured with an AK-47 rifle near Mazar-e-Sharif ^[sic].

[edit] Response to the allegations

[edit] Response to Tribunal questions

[edit] 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.

Al Shihri chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.^[5]

[edit] Transfer to Saudi Arabia

On June 25, 2006 14 men were transferred from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia. ^[6] One of the released men was identified as Abdulsalam Ghaithan Mureef al-Shehri.