Mohammed Souleimani Laalami

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Mohammed Souleimani Laalami (born March 4, 1965) is a citizen of Morocco, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.[1] Laalami's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 237. The Department of Defense reports he was born on March 4, 1965, in Casablanca, Morocco. He arrived in Guantanamo on February 8, 2002, and was repatriated on February 7, 2006.[2][3][4]

Official status reviews

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a trailer the size of a large RV. The captive sat on a plastic garden chair, with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor.[5][6] Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.[7]

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.[8] 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.[8] According to official policy the 520 captives who, like Laalami, had their "enemy combatant" status confirmed in 2004, should have had a annual followup hearings convened. Laalami should have had a followup status review convened by OARDEC in 2005, but there is no record that one was convened.[4]

A one page Summary of Evidence was drafted on August 17, 2004.[4] The allegations that memo listed included that: he was "recruited" in Morocco; that he traveled to Afghanistan for "jihad"; that he attended the Al Farouq training camp; that he was trained to use the Kalashnikov and the "RPG-PK pistol"; and that he carried a rifle and pulled guard duty during the battle of Tora Bora, where he was captured.

Mohammed chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[9] The Department of Defense published a three page summarized transcript.

Mohammed was confused over whether the Tribunal was a court of law, and wanted to know what crimes he was being charged with.[9]

Mohammed denied that he was recruited in Morocco.[9] Mohammed denied that he being trained at the al Farouq training camp. He claimed he made these confessions, in Afghanistan, when he was first captured, and was being beaten and threatened with death. He claimed both Afghans and Americans beat him during his interrogations in Afghanistan.

He denied being captured by the Northern Alliance in Tora Bora.[9] He denied ever being in Tora Bora. He was captured in a village near Jalalabad. He denied possessing any weapons.

Mohammed traveled to Afghanistan, with his family, on a religious pilgrimage.[9] When asked if he visited holy sites in Afghanistan he explained: "Pilgrimage can mean it is for religion, but I meant when you leave a place for good it is a pilgrimage."

Moroccan conviction

On November 10, 2006 Laalami and two other Moroccans said to be former Guantanamo detainees, were sentenced by a Moroccan court.[10][11][12] Laalami, was sentenced for a five year term, for starting a "criminal group". The other two Moroccans, named Najib Mohammad Lahassimi and Mohammed Ouali,[13]

Death fighting the Assad regime celebrated

Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Miami Herald, reported that Syrian rebel leader Sheik Abu Ahmad al Muhajir gave a eulogy for "Mohammed al Alami", as did another former Moroccan detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Ibrahim Bin Shakran.[14]

References

  1. "List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006". United States Department of Defense. http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf. Retrieved 2006-05-15.  16x16px Works related to List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006 at Wikisource
  2. "Measurements of Heights and Weights of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (ordered and consolidated version)". Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas, from DoD data. Archived from the original on 2008-11-09. http://web.archive.org/web/20081109191207/http://humanrights.ucdavis.edu/resources/library/documents-and-reports/gtmo_heightsweights.pdf. 
  3. OARDEC (2008-10-09). "Consolidate chronological listing of GTMO detainees released, transferred or deceased". Department of Defense. http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/09-F-0031_doc1.pdf. Retrieved 2008-12-28. 
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Margot Williams (2008-11-03). "Guantanamo Docket: Mohammed Souleimani Laalami". New York Times. http://projects.nytimes.com/guantanamo/detainees/237-mohammed-souleimani-laalami. Retrieved 2013-09-18. 
  5. Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court, New York Times, November 11, 2004 - mirror
  6. Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004
  7. "Annual Administrative Review Boards for Enemy Combatants Held at Guantanamo Attributable to Senior Defense Officials". United States Department of Defense. March 6, 2007. http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=3902. Retrieved 2007-09-22. 
  8. 8.0 8.1 "U.S. military reviews 'enemy combatant' use". USA Today. 2007-10-11. Archived from the original on 2012-08-11. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-10-11-guantanamo-combatants_N.htm. "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." 
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt/Set_33_2302-2425.pdf#page=72 OARDEC (2004). "Summarized Detainee Statement under Affirmation (ISN 237)". United Stated Department of Defense. pp. 72-73. Archived from the original on 2006-03-09. http://web.archive.org/web/20060309155243/http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt/Set_33_2302-2425.pdf. Retrieved 2013-09-18. 
  10. Morocco sentences three former Guantanamo detainees, The Jurist, November 12, 2006
  11. Morocco Jails 3 Ex-Guantanamo Detainees, Associated Press, November 10, 2006
  12. Rabat jails ex-Guantanamo detainees, Al Jazeera, November 12, 2006
  13. Andy Worthington (2007-11-27). "The Guantánamo Files: Website Extras (2) – Tora Bora". http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/the-guantanamo-files-website-extras-tora-bora/. Retrieved 2013-09-18. "In November 2006, he was convicted of setting up a “criminal gang,” being active in an unauthorized group and taking part in unauthorized gatherings. He was sentenced to five years in prison, but the sentence was quashed on appeal in May 2007, when he was, effectively, cleared of all the charges against him." 
  14. Carol Rosenberg. "Ex-Guantánamo detainee dies fighting Assad in Syria". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on 2013-09-17. http://web.archive.org/liveweb/http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/17/3633584/ex-guantanamo-detainee-dies-fighting.html. Retrieved 2013-09-18. "The Syrian Islamic Movement posted the video Monday on YouTube. It shows the body of a fallen fighter in his 30s or 40s and a rebel leader, Sheik Abu Ahmad al Muhajir, eulogizing the man as Mohammed al Alami, a Northwest African veteran of the jihad in Afghanistan “who went through hardship for the sake of God in the prison of the Americans in Guantánamo for five years.”"