Detained at Guantanamo Name Omar Bakr | ISN 695 | |
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Charge(s) No charge, held in extrajudicial detention | ||
Omar Khalifa Mohammed Abu Bakr is a citizen of Libya who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba, from August 5, 2002 until April 4, 2016. Abu Bakr's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 695. American intelligence analysts estimate that Abu Bakr was born in 1972 in Al Bayda [sic], Libya.
Contents
- Official status reviews
- Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants
- Second annual Administrative Review Board
- Formerly secret Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment
- 2015 Periodic Review Board hearing
- Transfer to the USA
- Transfer to Senegal
- References
The Miami Herald has called him a "forever prisoner", one the Guantanamo Review Task Force considered too dangerous to release or transfer from Guantanamo, but for whom evidence sufficient to lay criminal charges did not exist. Quoting his lawyer Ramzi Kassem, they report he is blind in one eye, has shrapnel in his left arm and what remains of his left leg, following a land mine explosion, while his other leg was "shattered" in a construction accident.
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:
Abu Bakr did not attend his Combatant Status Review Tribunal, but asked his Personal Representative to tell the Tribunal that he "would rather be in the worst American jail than be a minister in my country. I want to stay here."'
The four page memo included forty "primary factors favor[ing] continued detention" and six "primary factor favor[ing] release or transfer".
Second annual Administrative Review Board
A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for annual Administrative Review Board on Omar Khalif Mohammed Abu Baker Mahjoub's second annual Administrative Review Board on 11 October 2006. The four page memo included twenty-four "primary factors favor[ing] continued detention" and two "primary factor favor[ing] release or transfer".
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 detainee assessment written on August 22, 2008, was sixteen pages long. It was signed by camp commandant Rear Admiral David M. Thomas Jr., who recommended continued detention in Guantanamo
2015 Periodic Review Board hearing
His Periodic Review Board was convened on June 23, 2015. According to the Miami Herald the officials reviewing Baker's status were told he had ties to al Qaeda from the time the organization was based in Sudan, during the early 1990s. They were told he had "probably" fought against the Northern Alliance.
An officer assigned to assist him told the officials he was “peaceful, compliant, and also has quite a sense of humor.” The Miami Herald noted that he voluntarily agreed to meet with the officials during the period of Ramadan, pointing out that it was a time which “many Muslims devote to daytime fasting and prayer.”
The Miami Herald also quoted Ramzi Kaseem, Baker's civilian lawyer, who pointed out that his wounds made his detention a particular hardship.
Transfer to the USA
On August 31, 2009 Corrections One, a trade journal for the prison industry, speculated that "Omar Khalifa Mohammed Abu Bakr" was one of ten captives they speculated might be moved to a maximum security prison in Standish, Michigan.
Transfer to Senegal
On April 4, 2016, Abu Bakr, and another Libyan Salem Abdul Salem Ghereby, were transferred to Senegal.