HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Abdullah Mujahid (born 1971) is a citizen of
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
who is still held in
extrajudicial detention Administrative detention is arrest and detention of individuals by the state without trial. A number of jurisdictions claim that it is done for security reasons. Many countries claim to use administrative detention as a means to combat terrorism ...
after being transferred from
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in
Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
— to an
Afghan Afghan or Afgan may refer to: Related to Afghanistan *Afghans, historically refers to the Pashtun people. It is both an ethnicity and nationality. Ethnicity wise, it refers to the Pashtuns. In modern terms, it means both the citizens of Afghanist ...
prison. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 1100. According to the
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
, the allegations against Mujahid, in his
Combatant Status Review Tribunal The Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT) were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as " enemy combatants". The CSRTs were establi ...
, state Mujahid was head of security for the city of
Gardez Gardez ( / ; ''Gardēz'', meaning "mountain fortress" in Middle Persian) is the capital of the Paktia Province of Afghanistan. The population of the city was estimated to be ca. 10,000 in the 1979 census and was estimated to be 70,000 in 2008. Th ...
and for
Paktia Paktia (Pashto – ''Paktyā'') is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the east of the country. Forming part of the larger Loya Paktia region, Paktia Province is divided into 15 districts and has a population of roughly 623,0 ...
province. He was accused of ties to al-Qaeda and of attacking U.S. forces, and was arrested in July 2003. Mujahid claimed he was loyal to the coalition.


Background

Abdullah Mujahid is a militia leader from Afghanistan's Tajik ethnic group, who rose up against the Taliban in the closing days of its administration of Afghanistan. The Afghanistan Transitional Authority rewarded Mujahid, and other militia leaders who had risen up against the Taliban, with the control of security forces. Both Mujahid and Pacha Khan Zadran, a
Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ;), also known as Pakhtuns, or Pathans, are an Iranic ethnic group primarily residing in southern and eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. They were historically also referred to as Afghans until 1964 after the ...
from the Zadran tribe, were rewarded with security appointments in
Paktia Paktia (Pashto – ''Paktyā'') is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the east of the country. Forming part of the larger Loya Paktia region, Paktia Province is divided into 15 districts and has a population of roughly 623,0 ...
province. Mujahid and Zadran struggled to consolidate greater shares of control over Paktia's security forces. Mujahid and Zadran's forces were reported to have engaged in gun battles during their disputes. Both men's forces were accused of abusing their authority and routinely robbing civilians at their roadblocks. By 2003, both men were regarded as renegades and enemies by US forces. A high-level delegation from Kabul visited Mujahid, and offered him a nominally more senior position in Kabul as a "Highway Commander". Mujahid accepted this offer, and yielded up his position as Chief of Police of Gardez, and traveled to Kabul. However, the promised promotion never materialized. When Mujahid returned home to Gardez, he was sent to Guantanamo. Zadran's nephew, and Lieutenant, Jan Baz, was also apprehended and sent to Bagram Theater detention facility. But Zadran remained at large, and now represents Paktia in the Afghan Parliament. Mujahid faced a number of allegations during his
Combatant Status Review Tribunal The Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT) were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as " enemy combatants". The CSRTs were establi ...
and
Administrative Review Board The Administrative Review Board is a United States military body that conducts an annual review of the detainees held by the United States in Camp Delta at the United States Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The purpose o ...
hearings: notably that he was fired for corruption and collusion with the opposition, that he was a senior commander of
Lashkar-e-Taiba Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is a Pakistani Islamism, Islamist militant organization driven by a Salafi jihadism, Salafi jihadist ideology. The organisation's primary stated objective is to merge the whole of Kashmir with Pakistan. It was founded in 19 ...
, a Pakistani militant group based in
Kashmir Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...
. He was also accused of currently being a member of Harakat-e-Mulavi, a group which American intelligence analysts believe is now allied with the rebels. Mujahid's lawyers assert that the Lashkar-e-Taiba connection is a case of mistaken identity. A senior commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, also named Abdullah Mujahid, was killed in 2006. Mujahid's lawyers acknowledge that he fought with Harakat-e-Mulavi, against some of Afghanistan's foreign occupiers—during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, during the 1980s. All of the allegations against Mujahid have been dropped in early 2007, and he was cleared for release. However, as of August 2007, he still remains in Guantanamo.


Combatant Status Review

The Bush administration asserted that:
the protections of the
Geneva Conventions upright=1.15, The original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are international humanitarian laws consisting of four treaties and three additional protocols that establish international legal standards for humanitarian t ...
did not extend to captured prisoners who are not members of the regular Afghan armed force nor meet the criteria for prisoner of war for voluntary forces.
Critics argued the Conventions obliged the U.S. to conduct competent tribunals to determine the status of prisoners. Subsequently, the
U.S. Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, t ...
instituted
Combatant Status Review Tribunal The Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT) were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as " enemy combatants". The CSRTs were establi ...
s (CSRTs), to determine whether detainees met the new definition of an "
enemy combatant Enemy combatant is a term for a person who, either lawfully or unlawfully, engages in hostilities for the other side in an armed conflict, used by the U.S. government and media during the War on Terror. Usually enemy combatants are members of t ...
". "Enemy combatant" was defined by the U.S. Department of Defense as:
an individual who was part of, or supporting, the Taliban, or al-Qaeda forces, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners. This includes any person who commits a belligerent act or has directly supported hostilities in aid of enemy armed forces.
The CSRTs are not bound by the
rules of evidence The law of evidence, also known as the rules of evidence, encompasses the rules and legal principles that govern the proof of facts in a legal proceeding. These rules determine what evidence must or must not be considered by the trier of fa ...
that would normally apply in civilian court, and the government’s evidence is presumed to be “genuine and accurate.” From July 2004 through March 2005, CSRTs were convened to determine whether each prisoner had been correctly classified as an "enemy combatant". was among the 60% of prisoners who chose to participate in tribunal hearings. A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for the tribunal of each detainee, listing the allegations that supported their detention as an "enemy combatant". 's memo accused him of the following:


Witnesses

Mujahid requested eight witnesses: * Said Mohammed Ali Shah - a Guantanamo detainee. * Haji Mohammed Aktiar - the Tribunal's President doesn't identify Aktiar any further, but assumes he is back in Afghanistan. In fact three individuals named Akhtiar Mohammed were detained in Guantanamo, and two were still in detention at the time of the Tribunals. *
Mohammed Aman Mohammed Aman Geleto (Amharic: መሀመድ አማን; born 10 January 1994) is an Ethiopian middle-distance runner. Born in Asella, he is the winner of the 800-meter final at the 2013 World Athletics Championships in the Luzhniki stadium in M ...
- also a Guantanamo detainee. * Mohammed Musa - apparently also a Guantanamo detainee. But his name does not match that of any on the official list. * Shahzdeh Masoud - one of
Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai (born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan politician who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from 2002 to 2014, including as the first president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan from 2004 to 2014. He previously served a ...
's advisors, who led a delegation to Gardez to convince Mujahid to step down. * Gulltay Deh - the Afghan Defense Ministry's representative on Masoud's delegation. * Haji Saifullah - the ''Boston Globe'' reported Saifullah was dead. * Minister of Interior - Ahmed Ali Jalali - the Interior Ministry's representative on Masoud's delegation, currently teaching at the
National Defense University National Defence (or Defense) University (or College) may refer to: :''Alphabetical by country'' University * Marshal Fahim National Defense University, Afghanistan * National Defense University (Azerbaijan) * People's Liberation Army National Defe ...
in Washington, D.C. The Tribunal's President decided to allow three of the other Guantanamo detainees as witnesses. However, he informed Mujahid that they would not be allowed to testify, in person, for "Force Protection reasons". He then informed Mujahid that American officials had not been able to secure the cooperation of the Afghan government in locating the witnesses back in Afghanistan. The ''
Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...
'' reported that they found that many witnesses that detainees had requested, who US officials claimed were not reasonably available, were easily located. The article particularly the ease with which they located Mujahid's witnesses. It quoted the President of Mujahid's Tribunal:
The Afghan government was contacted on or about 26 November 2004, As of this date, the Afghanistan government has not responded to our request. . . . Without the cooperation of that government, we are unable to contact those witnesses and to obtain the testimony you requested.
The article then stated:
But in Afghanistan earlier this month, a reporter for the Globe located three of the four witnesses in a matter of days.


Transcript

Mujahid chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. On March 3, 2006, in response to 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 o ...
from Jed Rakoff the
Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...
published a twelve-page summarized transcript from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal, and nine pages of statements from witnesses who were not allowed to testify in person at his Tribunal.


Testimony

Mujahid denied that he was removed due to suspicions of collusion with anti-government forces. He testified that he left the position of Provincial Security Chief to assume a new position in Kabul. He claimed the witnesses of the visiting commission would testify that he left his position to take a promotion. Mujahid denied being associated with any anti-government forces. He also denied any responsibility for any attacks on US or coalition forces. The three witnesses he called all confirmed that he had been an effective Police commander for the Karzai government, and confirmed that he was not fired, he was promoted. They attributed their captures to false denunciations from rival factions within Karzai's coalition.


Hafizullah Shabaz Khail's accusation

Guantanamo detainee
Hafizullah Shabaz Khail Dr. Hafizullah Shabaz Khail is a citizen of Afghanistan, who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. American intelligence analysts estimate he was born in 1946, in Paktia, Afghanistan. ...
said that Mujahid had arrested him, when his mentor, the Governor, of his Province was in
Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...
. Summarized transcripts (.pdf) from
Hafizullah Shabaz Khail Dr. Hafizullah Shabaz Khail is a citizen of Afghanistan, who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. American intelligence analysts estimate he was born in 1946, in Paktia, Afghanistan. ...
's ''
Combatant Status Review Tribunal The Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT) were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as " enemy combatants". The CSRTs were establi ...
'' - pages 11-21
Summarized transcript (.pdf) from
Hafizullah Shabaz Khail Dr. Hafizullah Shabaz Khail is a citizen of Afghanistan, who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. American intelligence analysts estimate he was born in 1946, in Paktia, Afghanistan. ...
's ''
Administrative Review Board The Administrative Review Board is a United States military body that conducts an annual review of the detainees held by the United States in Camp Delta at the United States Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The purpose o ...
hearing'' - page 178
Khail was the District Chief of Zormat, and the chair of the security committee in
Paktia Paktia (Pashto – ''Paktyā'') is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the east of the country. Forming part of the larger Loya Paktia region, Paktia Province is divided into 15 districts and has a population of roughly 623,0 ...
Province. Khail said his arrest, and the false allegations against him, were due to his arrest of a protégé of Mujahid, named Taj Mohammed. According to Khail, Taj Mohammed was a security officer who worked under Mujahid, who had abused his uniform and his authority to rob a businessman of 200,000 Khaldars. Khail said he forced Taj Mohammed to pay the businessman back.


Abdullah Musahed v. George W. Bush

A
writ of habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a legal procedure invoking the jurisdiction of a court to review the unlawful detention or imprisonment of an individual, and request the individual's custodian (usually a prison official) to ...
, Abdullah Musahed v. George W. Bush, was submitted on Abdullah Musahed's behalf. In response, on 10 August 2005, the Department of Defense published 37 pages of unclassified documents related to his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. On December 17, 2004 Tribunal panel 26 convened and confirmed his "enemy combatant" status. The documents published from Abdullah's CSR Tribunal state that his original Tribunal President was replaced. The documents contain multiple incompatible explanations as to why Mohammed Musa's testimony was not made available. The documents state that the original Tribunal President had ruled his testimony "redundant". His Personal Representative's notes, however, stated that he couldn't find Mohammed Musa. The CSRT's Legal Advisor recorded in his Legal Sufficiency Review:


Administrative Review Board

Detainees whose
Combatant Status Review Tribunal The Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT) were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as " enemy combatants". The CSRTs were establi ...
labeled them "enemy combatants" were scheduled for annual
Administrative Review Board The Administrative Review Board is a United States military body that conducts an annual review of the detainees held by the United States in Camp Delta at the United States Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The purpose o ...
hearings. These hearings were designed to assess the threat a detainee might pose if released or transferred, and whether there were other factors that warranted his continued detention.


Summary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Abdullah Mujahid's Administrative Review Board, on 23 June 2005. The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention.


The following primary factors favor continued detention

:


The following primary factors favor release or transfer

:


Transcript

Mujahid chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.


Response to the factors

* Mujahid confirmed he fought against the Soviets—for about eight months, when he was sixteen or seventeen. After the Soviets withdrew he fought against the Communist government that had been left behind. * Mujahid confirmed that he had worked for the Rabbani government prior to the Taliban regime, and had served as a police officer after its fall. But, during the Taliban's regime he laid low, and worked as a simple farmer. * Mujahid denied participating in an anti-US attack in Gardez. He disputed that this incident took place. * In response to the allegation that he was a "former Lashkar-e-Tayyiba commander" he asked the time frame when he was supposed to have filled this role. He said he had given his interrogators a full account of his life, and there were no gaps in it when he could have been a Lashkar-e-Tayyiba. He added: * After the factor where Lashkar-e-Tayyiba's roots in Pakistan were outlined he pointed out:


Mujahid and the claim that captives were "captured on the battlefield"

On August 12, 2007 Farah Stockman, writing in the ''
Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...
'' used Mjuahid'd story to comment on the Bush administration's claim that Guantanamo captives had been apprehended "on the battlefield". Stockman described Mujahid as an early supporter during the overthrow of the Taliban, whose usefulness waned after their ouster, because he was illiterate, and was rumored to be corrupt. Stockman wrote:


Transfer to an Afghan prison

On November 25, 2008, the Department of Defense published a list of when Guantanamo captives were repatriated. According to that list he was repatriated on December 12, 2007. The
Center for Constitutional Rights The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR; formerly Law Center for Constitutional Rights) is an American progressive non-profit legal advocacy organization based in New York City. It was founded in 1966 by lawyers William Kunstler, Arthur Kin ...
reports that all of the Afghans repatriated to Afghanistan from April 2007 were sent to Afghan custody in the American built and supervised wing of the Pul-e-Charkhi prison near
Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...
.


References


External links


The story of Abdullah Mujahid, an Afghan police chief betrayed by the US administration and wrongly sent to Guantánamo
Andy Worthington {{DEFAULTSORT:Mujahid, Abdullah Living people Guantanamo detainees known to have been transferred and never released 1971 births Afghan extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Block D, Pul-e-Charkhi prison Afghan Tajik people