ISN 184 | Name Othman Othman | |
 | ||
Charge(s) no charge, held in extrajudicial detention Status transferred to Saudi Arabian custody on June 25, 2006 Detained at Guantanamo Bay detention camp | ||
Othman Ahmed Othman Al Omairah (also transliterated as Othman Ahmad Othman al-Ghamdi) was a citizen of either Yemen or Saudi Arabia, who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.
Contents
- Inconsistent identification
- Combatant Status Review
- Administrative Review Board
- Summary of Evidence memo
- Guantanamo record
- Transfer to Saudi Arabia
- Named on a Saudi most wanted list
- Reported the death of Fahd Al Jutayli
- Reported to have appeared in a militant video
- Named on American wanted list
- References
His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 184. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts estimate he was born in 1973, in Shabwa, Yemen.
Inconsistent identification
Othman was identified differently on official US documents and official Saudi documents.
He was identified as Othman Ahmed Othman Al Omairah on official lists of captives from April 2006, May 2006 and September 2007, and on the memos that summarized the allegations against him.
But, on June 25, 2006, the USA repatriated 14 men to Saudi Arabia, including a man the Saudi government identified as Othman Ahmad Othman al-Ghamdi.
The DoD reports that he was a citizen of Yemen.
Combatant Status Review
A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for his tribunal. The memo listed the following allegations against him:
Administrative Review Board
Detainees whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal labeled them "enemy combatants" were scheduled for annual Administrative Review Board hearings. These hearings were designed to assess the threat a detainee might pose if released or transferred, and whether there were other factors that warranted his continued detention.
Summary of Evidence memo
A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Othman Ahmed Othman Al Omairah Administrative Review Board, on 20 September 2005. The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention. His memo was three pages long.
Guantanamo record
There is no record that Othman Ahmad Othman al-Ghamdi chose to attend either his Combatant Status Review Tribunal or his Administrative Review Board hearing.
Transfer to Saudi Arabia
On June 25, 2006 14 men were transferred from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia. A Saudi identified as Othman Ahmad Othman al-Ghamdi was identified as one of the released men.
Named on a Saudi "most wanted" list
On February 3, 2009 the Saudi government published a list of 85 "most wanted" suspected terrorists, that included an individual identified as "Othman Al-Ghamdi". This list contained ten other former Guantanamo captives. Half of the eleven former captives listed on most wanted list were also from among the eleven men repatriated on November 9, 2007—in spite of their annual reviews recommending continued detention.
The Saudi Gazette reported he "is believed to have traveled to a neighboring country" with his brother-in-law, fellow "most wanted" suspect and fellow former Guantanamo captive, Adnan Al-Sayegh, leaving behind his wife and son.
Reported the death of Fahd Al Jutayli
The Yemen Post reported on September 27 that Othman Al-Ghamedi and Yousuf Al-Shahri had contacted their families requesting that they pass on news to the family of Fahd Saleh Sulaiman Al-Jatili that he had died during a military action by Yemeni security officials.
Reported to have appeared in a militant video
On May 28, 2010, Thomas Joscelyn, writing in The Long War Journal, reported that former Guantanamo captive "Othman Ahmed al Ghamdi" had recently appeared in a video entitled, "America and the Final Trap". Joscelyn reported that the tape was released by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and that Othman had confirmed that three of the group's leaders had been killed in an air strike in December 2009. Joscelyn reported that the tape described Othman as one of the group's commanders.
Named on American wanted list
Al-Ghamdi was placed on the U.S. State Department's Rewards for Justice list on October 19, 2014 He was quietly removed from the list in January 2016. The year before, a jihadist on Twitter had claimed that al-Ghamdi was killed in a drone strike. In March 2016, the State Department confirmed to The Bureau of Investigative Journalism that al-Ghamdi no longer "posed a threat to U.S. persons or interests."