Ruzatullah 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 was held in

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 ...

' custody in its

Bagram Theater Internment Facility The Parwan Detention Facility (also called Detention Facility in Parwan or Bagram prison) is Afghanistan's main military prison. Situated next to the Bagram Air Base in the Parwan Province of Afghanistan, the prison was built by the U.S. during ...

, in Afghanistan. Ruzatullah is notable for being one of the first captives held by the US 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 ...

in Afghanistan to have 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 ...

filed on his behalf.

Capture

Eric Lewis, one of Ruzatullah's attorneys, wrote in

Slate magazine ''Slate'' is an online magazine that covers current affairs, politics, and culture in the United States. It was created in 1996 by former ''The New Republic, New Republic'' editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as ...

in August 2007, that Ruzatullah and his brother were captured two and a half years earlier.

Ruzatullah v. Gates

Ruzatullah, and

Hajji Hajji (; sometimes spelled Hajjeh, Hadji, Haji, Alhaji, Al-Hadj, Al-Haj or El-Hajj) is an honorific title which is given to a Muslim who has successfully completed the Hajj to Mecca. Etymology ''Hajji'' is derived from the Arabic ' (), which i ...

Rohullah, two men held in

in Bagram had a

. Ruzatullah v. Gates, filed on their behalf on October 2, 2006. As of December 2007 lawyers for the petitioners and the respondent had filed a total of 38 sets of documents. Mark Berman, one of the attorneys for

Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri (Arabic: علي صالح كحلة المري ) (b. 1966–1967) is a citizen of Qatar who was sentenced to serve an 8-year sentence in a United States federal prison. He pleaded guilty to one count in a plea bargain afte ...

, the only "

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 ...

" detained in the

continental USA The contiguous United States, also known as the U.S. mainland, officially referred to as the conterminous United States, consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the District of Columbia of the United States in central North America. The ter ...

, wrote that the Military Commissions Act opened access to the DC Court of appeals to American captives held outside of Guantanamo.

Transfer to Pul-e-Charkhi prison

On June 7, 2007, without any advance notice, 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, ...

transferred Ruzatullah to the

Pul-e-Charkhi prison Pul-e-Charkhi prison (Dari: زندان پل چرخی), also known as the Afghan National Detention Facility, is a maximum-security prison located next to the Ahmad Shah Baba Mina neighborhood in the eastern part of Kabul, Afghanistan. It has the ...

. They argued that since the Pul-e-Charkhi prison is an Afghan prison, with Afghan guards, Ruzatullah is in Afghan custody, and is no longer under the control of the US. Eric Lewis's response to that argument is that Ruzatullah, and close to one hundred other captives in US custody were transferred to a new US-built wing of the prison, guarded by Afghans who were hired by, and trained by US personnel, and that the control room is staffed by US personnel, these captives are in Afghan custody in name only. He questioned whether Afghan courts would not be allowed to set these men free. Lewis wrote that Ruzatullah's family had been allowed to visit him in Pul-e-Charkhi, and that they found him erratic and argumentative.

References

{{Reflist Afghan extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Bagram Theater Internment Facility detainees Living people Bagram captives' habeas corpus petitions Year of birth missing (living people)