Faiz Mohammed Ahmed Al Kandari

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Fayiz Muhammed Ahmed Al Kandari
Born June 3, 1975 (1975-06-03) (age 48)
Kuwait City

Fayiz Mohammed Ahmed Al Kandari is a Kuwaiti citizen who has been detained in Guantanamo Bay since 2002.[1] He has been charged with war crimes.[2]

The US Department of Defense reports he was born on June 3, 1975 in Kuwait City.

Al Kandari has been held at Guantanamo since May 1, 2002.[3]

Detention in Bagram

Combatant Status Review

His Combatant Status Review Tribunal accused him of the following: "The detainee (Al Kandari) recruited personnel to participate in jihad in Afghanistan ... traveled into Afghanistan and received weapons training at the Khaldan training camp. Osama bin Laden personally provided religious instruction and trainee (sic) at this camp."[4] Al Kandari has always denied the accusations and said: "I looked at all the unclassified accusations; I was laughing so hard." and "All this happened in a period of three months ... I ask, 'Are these accusations against Faiz or against Superman?' It seems to me that whoever wrote these accusations he must (have) been drinking and he must have been drunk when he wrote it."

Hearsay evidence

Lawyers for two Guantanamo detainees organized a study entitled, No-hearing hearings, which cited Al Kandari as an example of a detainee for whom all the evidence against him was "hearsay evidence".[5][6]

The study quoted the Tribunal's legal advisor:[5]

"Indeed, the evidence considered persuasive by the Tribunal is made up almost entirely of hearsay evidence recorded by unidentified individuals with no first hand knowledge of the events they describe."

The study commented:[5]

“Outside of the CSRT process, this type of evidence is more commonly referred to as 'rumor'.”

Comment from his lawyer Lieutenant Colonel Barry D. Wingard

Lieutenant Colonel Barry Wingard lead attorney from the Office of Military Commissions, published an article about citing hearsey evidence against his client.[7] Lieutenant Colonel Wingard said "Vague charges made it difficult to defend his client after he was assigned in October to represent a Kuwaiti named Fayiz al-Kandari". In trying to prepare his case, Lieutenant Colonel Wingard said:

"There simply is no evidence other than he is a Muslim in Afghanistan at the wrong time, other than double and triple hearsay statements, something i have never seen as justification for incarceration, let alone eight years."[7]

Alleged mistreatment while in detention

Lieutenant Colonel Barry Wingard and Fayiz Mohammed Ahmed al Kandari, pertaining to the harsh treatment and enhanced interrogation techniques that Fayiz was continually subjected to. The abuse included sleep deprivation, physical abuse, being placed in stress position, sexual humiliation, and the use of extreme temperature, loud music and dogs.[8][9]

Ask about the alleged mistreatment his mother who has not seen her son for 10 years his mother said:

"What do I feel? You know a mother's heart. I cry all the time and I never sleep at night."

In November 2011 Wingard expressed as well outrage over a propaganda video that the DOD had published.

"My first thought was that there is no way the United States government sank so low as to show my client to the world, caged like a circus animal."[10]

Habeas Corpus

In an interview with TPMmuckraker, David Cynamon—a lawyer for four Kuwaiti Gitmo detainees who are bringing habeas corpus claims against the government.[11] "The Department of Justice has been doing everything in its power to delay and obstruct these cases," said Cynamon Cynamon's clients were picked up in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region in the period after the 2001 U.S invasion of Afghanistan. '"They're not doing anything to move the case along, and doing everything to avoid it." Asked whether he had observed a shift of any kind in the government's approach since the Obama administration came into office, Cynamon flatly replied "None whatsoever."

According to Josh Gerstein, of Politico, US District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly criticized Justice Department lawyers on March 4, 2009.[12] Gerstein reported Kollar-Kotelly refused to reconsider an earlier and similarly scathing order requiring the Justice Department to replace the government's attorney responding to challenges several Kuwaiti men have brought to their imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay. She used the words "shockingly revisionist," "flippant" and "disingenuous" to describe the government's handling of the litigation. "The responsibiltiy lies with the higher ups in the Justice Department who have been pursuing a very aggressive and very successful strategy of delay for months" attorney Matthew Maclean said.

"The Supreme Court said in June of 2008 we were entitled to prompt habeas corpus review. ... Last month, ... for the first time in seven years, [the prisoners] were allowed to see the accusations against them."

Eventually Collar-Kottely ruled that the US Government had authority to continue to detain al Kandari and Fawzi al Odah.[13]

US v. Al Kandari

On 22 October 2008 the Office of Military Commissions filed charges against Al Kandari.[14] Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Miami Herald reported that charges against al Kandari were dropped on June 29, 2012.[13] She reported the charges were dropped, "without prejudice" -- meaning the charges could be re-filed. She reported there had been negotiation with Kuwaiti diplomats over the return of al Kandari and Khaled al Odah

References

  1. OARDEC (May 15, 2006). "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. http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf. Retrieved 2007-09-29. 
  2. The Guantanamo Docket - Faiz Mohammed Ahmed al Kandari
  3. Fayiz Muhammad Ahmad Jamal Muhammad Al Kandari, The Daily Telegraph, April 27, 2011
  4. Jenifer Fenton (August 16, 2011). "Ten years on, Kuwaiti inmates fear indefinite Guantanamo detention". CNN. p. 2. http://articles.cnn.com/2011-08-16/world/kuwaiti.guantanamo.detainees_1_qaeda-kuwait-tora-bora. Retrieved 2011-08-18. 
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 Mark Denbeaux, Joshua Denbeaux, David Gratz, John Gregorek, Matthew Darby, Shana Edwards, Shane Hartman, Daniel Mann, Megan Sassaman and Helen Skinner. "No-hearing hearings" (PDF). Seton Hall University School of Law. p. 17. http://law.shu.edu/news/final_no_hearing_hearings_report.pdf. Retrieved April 2, 2007. 
  6. "Gitmo detainees denied witnesses: Lawyer calls legal proceedings ‘shams,’". MSNBC. November 17, 2006. Archived from the original on 2009-09-13. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15759610/. Retrieved 2007-04-02. "The analysis of transcripts and records by two lawyers for Guantanamo detainees..." 
  7. 7.0 7.1 Lillian Thomas (May 10, 2009). "Military attorneys risk careers to criticize practices at Guantanamo". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. pp. 1. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09130/968880-84.stm?cmpid=MOSTEMAILEDBOX. Retrieved 2009-05-10. 
  8. Barry Wingard (2009-07-01). "No Justice Today At Guantanamo". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/30/AR2009063002897.html. Retrieved 2009-07-01.  [1]
  9. http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2011/12/201112298544422981.html
  10. http://www.truth-out.org/outrage-pentagon-produced-guantanamo-propaganda-video/1321647939
  11. Zachary Roth (2009-04-10). "Not Just State Secrets: Obama Continuing Bush's Stonewalling On Gitmo Cases, Lawyer Claims". TPMMuckraker. pp. page 1. http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/04/yesterday_we_told_you_about.php. Retrieved 2009-04-10. "In the interview Mr. Cynamon said that the Justice Department has been consistently dragging its heels in the case, denying detainees their basic due process rights and furthering what he called the "abandonment of the rule of law."" 
  12. Josh Gerstein (2009-04-06). "Judge riled at DOJ in Gitmo case". Under the Radar-Politico. pp. page 1. http://www.politico.com/blogs/joshgerstein/0409/Judge_riled_in_Gtmo_case.html. Retrieved 2009-04-06. 
  13. 13.0 13.1 Carol Rosenberg (2012-06-29). "Pentagon drops Kuwaiti’s war crimes charges". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on 2012-06-29. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.miamiherald.com%2F2012%2F06%2F29%2F2874431%2Fpentagon-drops-kuwaitis-war-crimes.html&date=2012-06-29. Retrieved 2012-06-29. "The Pentagon on Friday abruptly dropped nearly 4-year-old charges against a Kuwaiti captive at Guantánamo, on the same day the Kuwaiti ambassador disclosed ongoing talks for release of the oil nation’s last two citizens held at the prison camps in Cuba." 
  14. Carol Rosenberg (2008-10-22). "Pentagon accuses 2 Kuwaitis of war crimes". Miami Herald. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/735909.html. Retrieved 2008-10-22.  mirror

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