Ruhal Ahmed (also spelled Rhuhel Ahmed, born 3 November 1981) is a British citizen who was detained without trial for over two years by the

United States government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct ...

, beginning in

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 ...

in 2001, and then in the

Guantanamo Bay detention camp The Guantanamo Bay detention camp, also known as GTMO ( ), GITMO ( ), or simply Guantanamo Bay, is a United States military prison within Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (NSGB), on the coast of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. It was established in 2002 by p ...

. His Internment Serial Number was 110. Ahmed was returned to the United Kingdom in March 2004, where he was released the next day without charges. He was one of three men, friends from

Tipton Tipton is an industrial town in the metropolitan borough of Sandwell, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It had a population of 38,777 at the 2011 UK Census. It is located northwest of Birmingham and southeas ...

, United Kingdom, who had been detained. They became known as the Tipton Three. In August 2004, Ahmed,

Shafiq Rasul Shafiq Rasul (born 15 April 1977) is a British citizen who was a detainee held at Guantanamo Bay by the United States, which treated him an unlawful combatant. His detainee ID number was 86. His family discovered his detention when the Briti ...

and Asif Iqbal compiled and released a report on their abuses while in US custody. In '' Rasul v. Rumsfeld,'' the Tipton Three and Jamal Udeen Al-Harith, four former Guantánamo Bay internees, sued former

US Secretary of Defense The United States secretary of defense (acronym: SecDef) is the head of the United States Department of Defense (DoD), the executive department of the U.S. Armed Forces, and is a high-ranking member of the federal cabinet. DoDD 5100.1: Enclos ...

Donald Rumsfeld Donald Henry Rumsfeld (July 9, 1932 – June 29, 2021) was an American politician, businessman, and naval officer who served as United States Secretary of Defense, secretary of defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and again ...

. They charge that illegal

interrogation Interrogation (also called questioning) is interviewing as commonly employed by law enforcement officers, military personnel, intelligence agencies, organized crime syndicates, and terrorist organizations with the goal of eliciting useful informa ...

tactics were permitted to be used against them by Rumsfeld and the

US military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. U.S. federal law names six armed forces: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and the Coast Guard. Since 1949, all of the armed forces, except th ...

chain of command A command hierarchy is a group of people who carry out orders based on others' authority within the group. Military chain of command In a military context, the chain of command is the line of authority and responsibility along which orders ...

. The 2006

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

, ''

The Road to Guantánamo ''The Road to Guantánamo'', alternatively ''The Road to Guantanamo'', is a British 2006 docudrama film written and directed by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross about the incarceration of three British citizens (the ' Tipton Three'), who ...

,'' is a

docu-drama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television and film, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of documentary and drama and "a fact-based representation of real event". Docudramas typ ...

Michael Winterbottom Michael Winterbottom (born 29 March 1961) is an English film director. He began his career working in British television before moving into features. Three of his films—''Welcome to Sarajevo'', ''Wonderland (1999 film), Wonderland'' and ''24 ...

depicting their account of their detention. Ahmed was refused a visa by

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

to travel there to promote the film.

Travel and detention

With his friends,

and Asif Iqbal, in October 2001, weeks after the

9/11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

in the United States, Ahmed travelled to his country of origin

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

, reportedly for a friend's wedding but while there went into Afghanistan and was caught when war broke out. They were captured by soldiers of the Northern Alliance and transferred to the custody of the US Army, as they had purportedly lost all their identification and luggage. They were detained there and transported to

s on US territory in Cuba, where they were severely interrogated and treated as enemy combatants. 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 ...

'' quoted Ahmed following the US announcement of the deaths of three detainees at Guantanamo in June 2006, who were alleged to have committed suicide. : :He said, "There is no hope in Guantanamo. The only thing that goes through your mind day after day is how to get justice or how to kill yourself. It is the despair - not the thought of martyrdom - that consumes you there." He went on, "A Saudi detainee in the cell in front of us had had enough. We could hear him rip up his sheets and tie it to the wire mesh roof of the cell. He jumped off his sink and tried to hang himself. We shouted to the military police and they came and saved him." Last, he said, "It's weird because when we left we weren't even that religious, We were young - average British lads. Obviously if we knew what we were getting ourselves into we would have never gone."

Release

Ahmed, Rasul, and Iqbal were returned to the UK in March 2004, and released the next day without charges. In August 2004, they compiled and released a report on their abuses while in US custody. On 15 June 2008, the

McClatchy News Service McClatchy Media Company, or simply McClatchy and MCC, is an American publishing company incorporated under Delaware's General Corporation Law. Originally based in Sacramento, California, United States, and known as The McClatchy Company, it b ...

published articles based on interviews with 66 former Guantanamo captives. McClatchy reporters interviewed Ahmed in Britain. Ahmed said when he returned to Tipton, someone had hung an effigy clad in an orange Guantanamo overall, labelled "Tipton Taliban will die." Ahmed has taken part in a campaign against torture, organized by

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

References

External links

Guantanamo Bay guard meets 'Tipton 3' ex-prisoners
video from the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, 12 January 2010 * *
Composite statement: Detention in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal and Rhuhel Ahmed

Ruhal Ahmed describes his experience of torture in Massive Attack's music video 'Saturday Come Slow' on YouTube, directed by Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ahmed, Ruhal 1981 births Living people English Muslims English people of Bangladeshi descent British extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Guantanamo detainees known to have been released People from Birmingham, West Midlands Victims of human rights abuses Articles containing video clips

Travel and detention

Release

See also

References

External links