Fahmi Salem Said Al Sani

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Fahmi Salem Said Al Sani is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] Al Sani's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 554. The Department of Defense reports that Al Sani was born on May 17, 1977, in Mikala, Yemen.

1 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
- 1.1 Allegations
- 1.2 Testimony
2 References

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a small trailer, the same width, but shorter, than a mobile home. The Tribunal's President sat in the big chair. The detainee sat with their hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor in the white, plastic garden chair. A one way mirror behind the Tribunal President allowed observers to observe clandestinely. In theory the open sessions of the Tribunals were open to the press. Three chairs were reserved for them. In practice the Tribunal only intermittently told the press that Tribunals were being held. And when they did they kept the detainee's identities secret. In practice almost all Tribunals went unobserved.

Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct a competent tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status.

Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants -- rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant.

[edit] Allegations

The Department of Defense complied with a Freedom of Information Act request, and released memoranda prepared for 507 of the 558 detainees whose classifications were reviewed by Combatant Status Review Tribunals. A memorandum summarizing the allegations Al Sani faced during his Tribunal in March of 2005.^[2] The allegations Al Sani faced were:

a. The detainee is associated with an al Qaida and the Taliban:

The detainee departed Yemen for Afghanistan on 16 July 2002.
The detainee was recruited in Yemen for jihad training in Afghanistan.
The detainee along with others received travel documents and instructions from a facilitator in Yemen.
The detainee received tickets from a facilitator in Yemen.
The detainee along with others were required to leave passport, money, all other forms of identification at a guest house (Mudafa) in Kandahar, Afghanistan in return for a receipt of these inventoried items.
The detainee's name, alias, along with other personal property information was found on a list recovered during raids against al Qaida associated safe houses.
The detainee received training on the Kalashnikov rifle at al Farouq.
The detainee received additional military training at another camp located near Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

b. The detainee participated in military operations against the United States and its coalition partners.

The detainee was assigned to augment Taliban and al Qaida forces already in defensive positions in Tora Bora.
The detainee was armed with a Kalashnikov rifle during the Tora Bora campaign.
The detainee was injured by a United States air strike while retreating to Pakistan with other soldiers.
The detainee's group surrendered to Northern Alliance forces.