Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bwazir

Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bwazir
Citizenship Yemen
ISN 440
Charge(s) extrajudicial detention
Status cleared for release

Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bwazir is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.[1] Bwazir's Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 440. American intelligence analysts estimate he was born in 1980, in Howra, Yemen.

Bwazir arrived in Guantanamo on May 1, 2002.[2][3]

In December 2015 unnamed officials leaked that 17 Congress had been given notice that 17 individuals would be transferred from Guantanamo starting in thirty days.[4] The US military planned to transfer the last three of those seventeen on January 21, 2016. Both his lawyers and military officials were surprised when Bwazir balked at the last moment, and declined repatriation.

Hunger strike

The Washington Post reports that Bawazir's lawyers assert that Bawazir was one of those participating in the 2006 Guantanamo hunger strike, and that the new harsher procedures camp authorities instituted to break te hunger strike violated last fall's proscription on torture.[5]

Camp authorities have been force-feeding hunger strikers. In January 2006 camp authorities started using "restraint chairs" to feed detainees.[6]

The Center for Constitutional Rights quoted from the emergency injunction Bawazir's lawyers filed on his behalf, in reaction to what they described as the unnecessary violence of his force-feeding in the restraint chair:[7]

Medical records show Bawazir's weight had dropped to 97 pounds, during the 140 days of his hunger strike.[8] Medical records show Bawazir was restrained in the chair longer than the manufacturer's directions.

Lieutenant Colonel Jeremy Martin asserted that the force-feedings were conducted humanely. He explained the extraordinary duration of the detainee's confinement to the restraint chair was due to the length of time the force-feeding took.

U.S. government lawyers argued that the bans on torture and cruel and unusual treatment didn't apply to captives in Guantánamo Bay.[9] Justice Gladys Kessler called the allegations "extremely disturbing".

On February 11, 2009 US District Court judge Gladys Kessler declined to bar the use of restraint chairs for force-feeding Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bawazir and Omar Khamis Bin Hamdoon.[10] Kessler's noted that Bawazir and Hamdoon petition stated that the use of the restraint chair was "tantamount to torture". But she stated the opinion that because she lacked the medical expertise to evaluate the position of the camp's medical authorities she lacked jurisdiction to rule on the petition.

According to the Agence France Presse Bawazir and Hamdoon were not opposed to being force fed. According to the Agence France Presse camp authorities are withholding medical treatment for their other ailments from the hunger strikers, in an attempt to pressure them to quit their strike.

Official status reviews

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.[11] 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.

Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a 3x5 meter trailer where the captive sat with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor.[12][13]

Following the Supreme Court's ruling the Department of Defense set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants.[11][14]

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:[15]

habeas corpus

A habeas corpus petition was filed on Bwazir's behalf in 2005.[16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ OARDEC. "List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2006-05-15. Works related to List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006 at Wikisource
  2. ↑ "Measurements of Heights and Weights of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (ordered and consolidated version)" (PDF). Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas, from DoD data. Retrieved 2009-12-21. mirror
  3. ↑ Margot Williams (2008-11-03). "Guantanamo Docket: Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bwazir". New York Times. Retrieved 2016-01-21.
  4. ↑ Charlie Savage (2016-01-21). "Guantánamo Detainee Refuses Offer of Release After 14 Years in Prison". New York Times. Retrieved 2016-01-21. The third — Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bwazir of Yemen — balked at the last minute, even though he has a history of hunger striking to protest his indefinite detention without trial. In recent days, Mr. Bwazir was “frightened” to leave the prison and go to a country where he has no family, his lawyer, John Chandler, said. The country has not been identified.
  5. ↑ Guantanamo Force-Feeding Tactics Are Called Torture, Washington Post, February 28, 2006
  6. ↑ First Violation of McCain Torture Amendment Alleged in Emergency Injunction , Common Dreams, February 28, 2006
  7. ↑ First Violation of McCain Torture Amendment Alleged in Emergency Injunction: Attorneys File to End Further Torture of Guantánamo Detainee on Hunger Strike, Center for Constitutional Rights, February 27, 2006
  8. ↑ Gitmo Prisoner Says Strikers Force-Fed, ABC News, February 9, 2006
  9. ↑ U.S. Cites Exception in Torture Ban: McCain Law May Not Apply to Cuba Prison, Washington Post, March 3, 2006
  10. ↑ "Judge silent on Guantanamo force feeding case". Agence France Presse. 2009-02-11. Retrieved 2009-02-11. mirror
  11. 1 2 "U.S. military reviews 'enemy combatant' use". USA Today. 2007-10-11. Archived from the original on 2012-08-11. Critics called it an overdue acknowledgment that the so-called Combatant Status Review Tribunals are unfairly geared toward labeling detainees the enemy, even when they pose little danger. Simply redoing the tribunals won't fix the problem, they said, because the system still allows coerced evidence and denies detainees legal representation.
  12. ↑ Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court, New York Times, November 11, 2004 - mirror
  13. ↑ Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004
  14. ↑ "Q&A: What next for Guantanamo prisoners?". BBC News. 2002-01-21. Archived from the original on 23 November 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-24. mirror
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Benjamin Wittes, Zaathira Wyne (2008-12-16). "The Current Detainee Population of Guantánamo: An Empirical Study" (PDF). The Brookings Institution. Retrieved 2010-02-16. mirror
  16. ↑ "Sabry Mohammed Ebrahim a Quarashi v. Barack Obama et al." (PDF). Department of Justice. 2009-12-18. Retrieved 2016-01-21.
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