Yunis Abdurrahman Shokuri

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Person.png Yunis Abdurrahman ShokuriRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
ISN 00197, Ahmad Abdullah al-Wazan.jpg
NationalityMorocco
Other names
  • Ahmad Abdullah al Wazan
  • Younous Chekkouri
  • Younis Chekkouri
Known forHeld for over 12 years in extrajudicial detention in Guantanamo

Yunis Abdurrahman Shokuri is a citizen of Morocco who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.[1] His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 197. Shokuri reports his date of birth as April 5, 1968. The Department of Defense reports that he was born in Asafi, Morocco.

Press reports

On July 12, 2006 the magazine Mother Jones provided excerpts from the transcripts of a selection of the Guantanamo detainees.[2] Shokuri was one of the detainees profiled. According to the article his transcript contained the following comment:

[T]he only way I know the United States is through movies from Hollywood or through cartoons. I’m a big fan of a lot of their singers…. [T]he first time I saw an American soldier was at Kandahar Air Base…. When I first saw myself in Kandahar, it was like I was in a cinema or a movie. I saw a 1996 movie called The Siege. The movie was about terrorists carrying out terrorist attacks in the United States…. [In the movie] the CIA and FBI were not successful in finding that terrorist group and the United States Army interfered and gathered all the people of Arabic descent and put them in a land cage or camp just like it happened in Kandahar. I was shocked, thinking, “Am I in that movie or on a stage in Hollywood?”… Sometimes I laugh at myself and say, “When does that movie end?”


Official status reviews

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.[3] 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.

Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants

Following the Supreme Court's ruling the Department of Defense set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants.[3]

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

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.

Summary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Shokuri Yunis Abdurrahman's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 16 November 2004.[4][5] The memo listed the following allegations against him:


Transcript

Shokuri chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[6]

The allegations were read aloud, and recorded in Shokuri's transcript.[7] The version read aloud did not have his position within the GICM—he was the head of the GICM's Military Commission. The version read aloud listed fewer terrorist groups associated with the GICM.

Opening statement

Shokuri said that all the detainees he had talked with, who had been allowed to meet with the lawyers handling their habeas corpus cases had been told they should not participate in their Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[6] But Shokuri said he chose to participate anyhow, because he had faith in his total innocence.

Shokuri said he had lived for six years in Pakistan, where he studied and did humanitarian work. Following his stay in Pakistan he traveled to Yemen and Syria. During the summer of 2001 he traveled to Afghanistan -- for humanitarian work.

Testimony

Administrative Review Board hearing

Hearing room where Guantanamo captive's annual Administrative Review Board hearings convened for captives whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal had already determined they were an "enemy combatant".[8]

Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board hearings. The Administrative Review Boards weren't authorized to review whether a detainee qualified for POW status, and they weren't authorized to review whether a detainee should have been classified as an "enemy combatant".

They were authorized to consider whether a detainee should continue to be detained by the United States, because they continued to pose a threat—or whether they could safely be repatriated to the custody of their home country, or whether they could be set free.

First annual Administrative Review Board

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Yunis Abdurrahman Shokuri's first annual Administrative Review Board, on 26 October 2005.[9] The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention.

The following primary factors favor continued detention


The following primary factors favor release or transfer


Statement

The Department of Defense released a brief statement Yunis Abdulrahman wrote[10]:


During his second annual Administrative Review Board he referred to attending his earlier Board.[11] The Department of Defense has not explained why this transcript was withheld.

Second annual Administrative Review Board

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Ahmad Abdullah Al Wazan's second annual Administrative Review Board, on 19 September 2006.[12] The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention.

The following primary factors favor continued detention


The following primary factors favor release or transfer


Transcript

The Department of Defense released a 15 page summarized transcript.[11]

Habeas corpus petition

Shokuri had a writ of habeas corpus filed on his behalf.

On 15 July 2008 Jan K. Kitchel filed a "PETITIONER'S REQUEST FOR 30-DAY NOTICE OF REMOVAL OR TRASFER" on Shokuri's behalf in Civil Action No. CV 05-0329 (HHK). [13] The petition would prevent the Department of Defense from transferring him out of US jurisdiction without giving his attorney's thirty days notice. The Department of Defense had transferred some captives to countries where they were subsequently subjected to abusive treatment—even though they had active habeas corpus petitions.

Publication of captives' CSR Tribunal documents

In September 2007 the Department of Justice published dossiers of unclassified documents arising from the Combatant Status Review Tribunals of 179 captives.[14] Shokuri's was not one of the dossiers that was published.

Formerly secret Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment

On April 25, 2011, whistleblower organization WikiLeaks published formerly secret assessments drafted by Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts.[15][16] The reference name on Shokuri's thirteen page assessment was "Ahmad Abdullah al-Wazan".[17] It was dated November 3, 2008, and was signed by commandant David M Thomas, who recommended continued detention.[18]

Release and disappearance

Various press reports assert that Shokure was transferred back to Morocco on October 12, 2006.[19] But his name was not present on a list the Department of Defense published of the captives transferred from Guantanamo prior to October 9, 2008.[20]

References

  1. ↑ "List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Retrieved 2006-05-15.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
  2. ↑ "Why Am I in Cuba?", Mother Jones (magazine), July 12, 2006
  3. ↑ a b {{URL|example.com|optional display text}}
  4. ↑ OARDEC (16 November 2004). "Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- name redacted (released March 2005)" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 69–70. Retrieved 2007-12-07.CS1 maint: extra text (link)Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
  5. ↑ OARDEC (16 November 2004). "Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Shokuri, Yunis Abdurrahman" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 9–10. Retrieved 2007-12-07.CS1 maint: extra text (link)Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto"). fast mirror
  6. ↑ a b [[[:Template:DoD detainees ARB]] Summarized transcripts (.pdf)], from Yunis Abdurrahman Shokuri's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 70-85
  7. ↑ [[[:Template:DoD detainees ARB]] Summarized transcripts (.pdf)], from Yunis Abdurrahman Shokuri's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 70-85
  8. ↑ {{URL|example.com|optional display text}}
  9. ↑ OARDEC (26 October 2005). "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Shokuri, Yunis Abdurrahman" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 38–40. Retrieved 2007-12-07.CS1 maint: extra text (link)Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
  10. ↑ OARDEC. "Yunis Abdulrahman's statement to his first annual Administrative Review Board" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. page 196. Retrieved 2007-12-07.CS1 maint: extra text (link)Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
  11. ↑ a b OARDEC (date redacted). "Summary of Administrative Review Board Proceedings for ISN 197" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 21–35. Retrieved 2007-12-07. Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: extra text (link)Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
  12. ↑ OARDEC (19 September 2006). "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Al Wazan, Ahmad Abdullah" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 4–6. Retrieved 2007-12-07.CS1 maint: extra text (link)Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
  13. ↑ Jan K. Kitchel (2008-07-15). "Guantanamo Bay Detainee Litigation: Doc 64 -- PETITIONER'S REQUEST FOR 30-DAY NOTICE OF REMOVAL OR TRASFER" (PDF). United States Department of Justice. Retrieved 2008-11-12.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto"). mirror
  14. ↑ OARDEC (August 8, 2007). "Index for CSRT Records Publicly Files in Guantanamo Detainee Cases" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Retrieved 2007-09-29.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
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  16. ↑ {{URL|example.com|optional display text}}
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  18. ↑ {{URL|example.com|optional display text}} mirror
  19. ↑ {{URL|example.com|optional display text}} mirror
  20. ↑ {{URL|example.com|optional display text}}


External links

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