Jon Mohammad Barakzai is an

Afghan Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia *Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity **Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pash ...

man who was held in extrajudicial detention in the

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Guantanamo Bay detention camp The Guantanamo Bay detention camp ( es, Centro de detención de la bahía de Guantánamo) is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo (), on the coast of Gua ...

s, in

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. Mohammed was repatriated in October 2002, together with three elderly men, two

is and a

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

i.Afghans Describe Life Inside Gitmo
, ''

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'', October 29, 2002 The men described being chained, for hours, during their interrogations. Mohammed said that he had been forcibly conscripted into the Taliban army, at gunpoint.Former Guantanamo Prisoners Say They Weren't Tortured
''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...

'', October 29, 2002Guantanamo prisoners tell of confinement & interrogations
''

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'', October 30'' 2002 Some press reports stated that Mohammed, and the three elderly detainees released at the same time he was, were the first detainees to be released. Mohammed said he recognized some high level

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

leaders in the camp, such as

Abdul Salam Zaeef Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef (; born 1967) is an Afghan diplomat who was the Afghan ambassador to Pakistan before the US invasion of Afghanistan. He was detained in Pakistan in the fall of 2001 and held until 2005 in the Guantanamo Bay detainment ...

, a former ambassador. He said that the detainees were shackled every time they were removed from their cells. Mohammed's companions said that they had no contact with their family during their American custody. Mohammed said he received a letter from his family just three days before his release.

The McClatchy interview

After a long legal battle the

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complied with a

court order A court order is an official proclamation by a judge (or panel of judges) that defines the legal relationships between the parties to a hearing, a trial, an appeal or other court proceedings. Such ruling requires or authorizes the carrying out ...

from US District Court Justice Jed Rakoff to release the names of all the Guantanamo detainees. The DoD released a list of all the captives who had been detained, in military custody, in Guantanamo. The name "Jan Mohammed" is missing from that list. On June 15, 2008, the

McClatchy News Service The McClatchy Company, commonly referred to as simply McClatchy, is an American publishing company incorporated under Delaware's General Corporation Law and based in Sacramento, California. It operates 29 daily newspapers in fourteen states and ...

published articles based on interviews with 66 former Guantanamo captives. McClatchy identified Jan Mohammed as Guantanamo captive 107, listed as "Jon Mohammad Barakzai". Mohammed described being sent to Sherberghan prison by

General Dostum Abdul Rashid Dostum ( ; prs, عبدالرشید دوستم; Uzbek Latin: , Uzbek Cyrillic: , ; born 25 March 1954) is an Afghan exiled politician, former Marshal in the Afghan National Army, founder and leader of the political party Junbish- ...

, where: Jan Mohammed described abuse while in the Afghan custody that preceded his US custody. He said he had to move, after he returned to Afghanistan, because local Taliban sympathizers suspected his early release was a sign that he was a US spy, or had collaborated with them.

References

External links

Many Held at Guantanamo Not Likely Terrorists - humanrights.ucdavis.edu

The Stories of the Afghans Just Released from Guantánamo: Intelligence Failures, Battlefield Myths and Unaccountable Prisons in Afghanistan (Part One)
Andy Worthington {{DEFAULTSORT:Barakzai, Jon Mohammad Year of birth missing (living people) Guantanamo detainees known to have been released Afghan extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Living people