Released 2016-06-22Montenegro ISN 37 | Citizenship Yemen | |
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Arrested December 2001Pakistan border crossingPakistani border guards Alternate name Abd al Malik Abd al Wahab,Abd al Malak Abd al-Wahab al-Rahabi,Abu Muaz,al-Battar al-Yemeni,Abu Aysha,Abu Aisha,Abd al-Malik Al-bu Aisha Charge(s) no charge, extrajudicial detention Detained at Guantanamo Bay detention camp Born 1979 (age 42 years), Yemen | ||
Abdel Malik Ahmed Abdel Wahab al Rahabi is a citizen of Yemen who was held in extrajudicial detention by the United States from December 2001 to June 22, 2016. He was one of the first twenty captives transferred to the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba, on January 11, 2001, and was held there until he was transferred to Montenegro, which granted him political asylum.
Contents
- Official status reviews
- Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants
- Formerly secret Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment
- Asylum in Montenegro
- References
One of the allegations US intelligence analysts used to justify his detention was that he was captured with a group of thirty Osama bin Laden bodyguards. Historian Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files, has criticized this allegation as it required taking at face value the denunciations of captives who lacked credibility.
Al Rahabi was a married man when he was captured. His wife had just given birth to a daughter. Al Rahabi was one of the camp's most determined hunger strikers.
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. 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.
Scholars at the Brookings Institution, led by Benjamin Wittes, listed the captives still held in Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain common allegations:
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. His eleven-page Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment was drafted on April 28, 2008. It was signed by camp commandant Rear Admiral Mark H. Buzby. He recommended continued detention.
Asylum in Montenegro
The government of Montenegro accepted al Rahabi on June 22, 2016. They explicitly went on record saying that he would be entitled to leave Montenegro and said that giving him asylum would not be a financial burden on Montenegro.