Shawki Awad Balzuhair

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Shawki Awad Balzuhair (born July 24, 1981) is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] His detainee ID number is 838. The Department of Defense reports that Balzuhair was born on July 24, 1981, in Hadramout, Yemen.

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunal notice read to a Guantanamo captive. During the period July 2004 through March 2005 a Combatant Status Review Tribunal was convened to make a determination whether they had been correctly classified as an "enemy combatant". Participation was optional. The Department of Defense reports that 317 of the 558 captives who remained in Guantanamo, in military custody, attended their Tribunals.

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 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 Tribunal. 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] Summary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Shawki Awad Balzuhair's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 18 October 2004.^[2][3] The memo listed the following allegations against him:

a. The detainee is associated with al Qaida:

1. The detainee traveled from Yemen to Afghanistan via the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan, in April/May 2001.
2. The detainee received training in small arms, grenades, explosives, mortars, and infantry tactics at al Farouq on three separate occasions prior to 11 September 2001.

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

1. The detainee served in the front lines near Bagram, Afghanistan prior to 11 September 2001.
2. The detainee repeatedly traveled between his guesthouse in Kabul and Omar Saif, Afghanistan after 11 September 2001, until he was ordered to retreat.
3. The detainee retreated from Afghanistan to Pakistan to Iran and then back to Pakistan, staying in safe houses for weeks to months at a time.
4. The detainee was captured by Pakistani police in a raid on a Karachi apartment on 11 September 2002.

[edit] Administrative Review Board

Hearing room for ARB hearings, after captives had been found to be "enemy combatants" during their CSRT.^[4]

Detainees whose CSRT labelled them "enemy combatants" were then scheduled for annual Administrative Review Board hearings. These hearings were designed to judge whether the detainee posed a threat if repatriated to their home country.

[edit] First annual Administrative Review Board

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Shawki Awad Balzuhair's first annual Administrative Review Board, on 8 November 2005.^[5] The memo listed three pages of factors for and against his continued detention.

[edit] Release or Repatriation?

In September 2007 the Department of Defense released all the Summary of Evidence memos prepared for the Administrative Review Boards convened in 2005 or 2006.^[6][7] There is no record that an Administrative Review Board convened in 2006 to review Shawki Awad Balzuhair's detention.

[edit] References

1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
2. ^ OARDEC (18 October 2004). Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- name redacted (released March 2005) page 276. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2008-01-08.
3. ^ OARDEC (18 October 2004). Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Balzuhair, Shawki Awad page 28. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2008-01-08.
4. ^ Book, Spc. Timothy. The Wire (JTF-GTMO), "Review process unprecedented", March 10, 2006
5. ^ OARDEC (8 November 2005). Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Balzuhair, Shawki Awad pages 98-100. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2008-01-05.
6. ^ OARDEC (August 9, 2007). Index to Summaries of Detention-Release Factors for ARB Round One. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-09-29.
7. ^ OARDEC (July 17, 2007). Index of Summaries of Detention-Release Factors for ARB Round Two. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-09-29.