Moath al-Alwi

Muaz Hamza Ahmad Al Alawi
File:ISN 00028 Muazhamza al-Alawi.jpg
Citizenship	Yemen

Muaz Hamza Ahmad Al Alawi is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His detainee ID number is 028.

In July 2013 Al Jazeera published an op-ed by Alawi where he described the experience of being force-fed. The last time Alawi's status was reviewed was in 2009, where the Guantanamo Joint Task Force determined evidence didn't exist to justify charging him with a crime, but they nevertheless didn't recommend releasing him.

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

CSRT notice read to a Guantanamo captive.

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 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.

To comply with a Freedom of Information Act request, during the winter and spring of 2005, the Department of Defense released 507 memoranda. Those 507 memoranda each contained the allegations against a single detainee, prepared for their Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The detainee's name and ID numbers were redacted from all but one of the memoranda. However 169 of the memoranda had the detainee's ID hand-written on the top right hand of the first page corner. When the Department of Defense complied with a court order, and released official lists of the detainee's names and ID numbers it was possible to identify who those 169 were written about. Muaz Hamza Ahmad Al Alawi was one of those 169 detainees.

Allegations

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

1. The detainee was in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia when he decided to travel to Afghanistan to join the Taliban and fight against the Northern Alliance.
2. The detainee traveled from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, through Yemen and into Quetta, Pakistan, where he stayed at a Taliban guesthouse, before entering Afghanistan.
3. The detainee traveled with Taliban fighters from Quetta, Pakistan across the border into Afghanistan, where he stayed at another Taliban guesthouse.
4. The detainee stayed at another Taliban guesthouse in Kabul, Afghanistan before traveling north in a Taliban vehicle to the Khalid Center, hear Baghram [sic], Afghanistan.
5. The detainee trained on and fired one round from a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) launcher while at the Khalid Center.
6. While at the Khalid Center, the detainee was issued a Kalashnikov [sic] rifle, four magazzines and two grenades.
7. The detainee was captured as he fled from Afghanistan into Pakistan, and was then turned over to the U.S. forces.

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

1. The detainee was transported to the Omar Saif Center where he was assigned to a middle line position for approximately five to six months and where he saw artillery attacks and saw other ffighters die.
2. As Kabul was overrun, the detainee returned to the north were [sic] he rejoined his unit and later went to the Mahlik Center [sic], north of Kabul, where he assisted with loading horses into trucks for transportation to Tajikistan.
3. The detainee accompanied the horses to the front lines located near Khvajeh Ghar [sic] where he remained, with fighters from a number of different nationalities, for two to three months.

Habeas corpus petition

Al Alawi had a writ of habeas corpus filed on his behalf.

On 30 December 2008 US District Court Judge Richard J. Leon ruled that Al Alawi, and, in a separate ruling, that Hisham Sliti, "were part of or supported the Taliban", and thus could continue to be held in US custody.The New York Times called the two rulings: "the first clear-cut victories for the Bush administration", while Andy Worthington noted they represented a "disturbing development".

Glaberson reported that Leon stated he did not have to take a position on the Bush administration's claim Al Alawi was an Osama bin Laden bodyguard, that there was enough evidence he had supported the Taliban to confirm his designation as an "enemy combatant".