Zahar Omar Hamis Bin Hamdoun

Zahar Omar Hamis Bin Hamdoun is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.[3] His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 576. The Department of Defense reports that he was born on November 13, 1979, in Ash-Shihr, Yemen.

Zahar Omar Hamis Bin Hamdoun
Zahar Hamdoun's Guantanamo identity portrait, showing him wearing a white uniform, showing he was a "compliant individual
Born (1979-11-13) November 13, 1979 (age 45)[1][2]
Ash-Shihr, Yemen
Arrested2002
Karachi, Pakistan
Pakistani security officials
CitizenshipYemen
Detained at Guantanamo
ISN576
Charge(s)No charge
StatusTransferred to the United Arab Emirates

Zahir arrived at Guantanamo on May 5, 2002.[4][5]

He had a Periodic Review Board hearing on December 8, 2015.[6]

Official status reviews

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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.[7] 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.

 
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.[8][9]

Following the Supreme Court's ruling the Department of Defense set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants.[7][10]

OARDEC reviews

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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:[11]

  • Zahar Omar Hamis Bin Hamdoun was listed as one of the captives whom the "military alleges ... are associated with Al Qaeda."[11]
  • Zahar Omar Hamis Bin Hamdoun was listed as one of the captives whom the "military alleges that the following detainees stayed in Al Qaeda, Taliban or other guest- or safehouses."[11]
  • Zahar Omar Hamis Bin Hamdoun was listed as one of the captives whom the "military alleges ... took military or terrorist training in Afghanistan."[11]
  • Zahar Omar Hamis Bin Hamdoun was listed as one of the captives whom the "military alleges that the following detainees were captured under circumstances that strongly suggest belligerency."[11]
  • Zahar Omar Hamis Bin Hamdoun was listed as one of the captives who was an "al Qaeda operative".[11]
  • Zahar Omar Hamis Bin Hamdoun was listed as one of the "82 detainees [who had] made no statement to CSRT or ARB tribunals or made statements that do not bear materially on the military’s allegations against them."[11]

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Zahar Omar Hamis Bin Hamdoun's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on October 14, 2004.[12]

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Zahar Omar Hamis Bin Hamdoun's first annual Administrative Review Board, on July 12, 2005.[13]

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Za Her Omer Khamis's second annual Administrative Review Board, on August 20, 2006.[14]

A four-page Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Zahar Omar Hamis bin Hamdoun's third annual Administrative Review Board, on September 13, 2007.[15]

Formerly secret Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment

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On April 25, 2011, whistleblower organization WikiLeaks published formerly secret assessments drafted by Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts.[16][17] A Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment was drafted on March 27, 2008.[18] It was signed by camp commandant Mark H. Buzby who recommended continued detention.[citation needed]

Hunger strike

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On February 11, 2009, US District Court judge Gladys Kessler declined to bar the use of restraint chairs for force-feeding Omar Khamis Bin Hamdoon and Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bawazir.[19] Kessler's noted that Bawazir and Hamdoon petition stated that the use of the restraint chair was "tantamount to torture". However, 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.

References

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  1. ^ "Recommendation for Continued Detention Under DoD Control (CD) for Guantanamo Detainee, ISN US9YM-000576DP (S)" (PDF). Retrieved 2023-08-26.
  2. ^ "Guantanamo Detainee Profile" (PDF).
  3. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf) Archived 2011-05-24 at the Wayback Machine, US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
  4. ^ "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. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-06-13. Retrieved 2009-12-21.
  5. ^ Margot Williams (2008-11-03). "Guantanamo Docket: Zahar Omar Hamis bin Hamdoun". New York Times. Retrieved 2015-12-09.
  6. ^ Carol Rosenberg (2015-12-08). "Another Guantánamo 'forever prisoner' makes appeal for release". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on 2016-01-12. So if allowed to be released to another country, attorney Pardiss Kebriaei said her Center for Constitutional Rights is prepared to offer years of long-term support ranging from "financial assistance and referrals for needs large and small, ranging from live-in interpreters and mental health care, to laptops and language CDs."
  7. ^ a b "U.S. military reviews 'enemy combatant' use". USA Today. 2007-10-11. Archived from the original on 2007-10-23. 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.
  8. ^ Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court, New York Times, November 11, 2004 - mirror Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004.
  10. ^ "Q&A: What next for Guantanamo prisoners?". BBC News. 2002-01-21. Archived from the original on 23 November 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-24.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Benjamin Wittes; Zaathira Wyne (2008-12-16). "The Current Detainee Population of Guantánamo: An Empirical Study" (PDF). The Brookings Institution. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-05-19. Retrieved 2010-02-16.
  12. ^ OARDEC (2004-10-14). "Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Hamdoun, Zahar Omar Harris Bin". United States Department of Defense. Retrieved 2015-12-09.
  13. ^ OARDEC (July 12, 2005). "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Hamdoun, Zahar Omar Harris Bin". United States Department of Defense. Retrieved 2007-11-11.
  14. ^ OARDEC (2006-08-20). "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Khamis, Za Her Omer". United States Department of Defense. Retrieved 2007-11-11.
  15. ^ OARDEC (2007-09-13). "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Hamdoun, Zahar Omar Hamis bin". United States Department of Defense. Retrieved 2010-03-28.
  16. ^ Christopher Hope; Robert Winnett; Holly Watt; Heidi Blake (2011-04-27). "WikiLeaks: Guantanamo Bay terrorist secrets revealed -- Guantanamo Bay has been used to incarcerate dozens of terrorists who have admitted plotting terrifying attacks against the West – while imprisoning more than 150 totally innocent people, top-secret files disclose". The Telegraph (UK). Archived from the original on 2012-07-15. Retrieved 2012-07-13. The Daily Telegraph, along with other newspapers including The Washington Post, today exposes America's own analysis of almost ten years of controversial interrogations on the world's most dangerous terrorists. This newspaper has been shown thousands of pages of top-secret files obtained by the WikiLeaks website.
  17. ^ "WikiLeaks: The Guantánamo files database". The Telegraph (UK). 2011-04-27. Archived from the original on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2012-07-10.
  18. ^ "Zahar Omar Hamis Bin Hamdoun: Guantanamo Bay detainee file on Zahar Omar Hamis Bin Hamdoun, US9YM-000576DP, passed to the Telegraph by Wikileaks". The Telegraph (UK). 2011-04-27. Retrieved 2015-12-09.
  19. ^ "Judge silent on Guantanamo force feeding case". Agence France Presse. 2009-02-11. Archived from the original on 2011-11-04. Retrieved 2009-02-11.