Mustafa al-Shamyri

Mustafa Abd al-Qawi Abd al-Aziz al-Shamiri
Mustafa Abd al-Qawi Abd al-Aziz al-Shamiri's Guantanamo identity portrait, showing him wearing the white uniform issued to compliant individuals.
Born	(1978-07-07) July 7, 1978 (age 45) [1] [2] Sanaa, Yemen
Released	2017-01-16 Oman
Citizenship	Yemen
Detained at	Guantanamo
ISN	434
Charge(s)	no charge extrajudicial detention
Status	transferred to Oman on 2017-01-16

Mustafa Abd al-Qawi Abd al-Aziz al-Shamiri is a citizen of Yemen who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camp in Cuba. ^[3] Al Shamiri's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 434. The Department of Defense reports that Al Shamiri was born on July 7, 1978, in Sanaa, Yemen. He was released and sent to Oman with nine other men, on January 16, 2017. ^{[4] [5] [6]}

Held due to mistaken identity

At his 2015 Periodic Review Board hearing, the DoD acknowledged that they had realized that al-Shamiri had been held due to a misidentification. ^[7] According to NBC News, Guantanamo analysts explained the identity confusion by admitting their colleagues had relied on "fragmentary reporting" that linked him to volunteering in the civil war that lead to Bosnian independence. ^[8] With regards to the more serious allegations that had been used to justify his detention, they now admitted: "we now judge that these activities were carried out by other known extremists".

In January 2016, he was "cleared for release". ^[9] This does not imply that he will actually be released; many other detainees that have been "cleared for release" have little prospect of ever obtaining their freedom. ^[10]

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. ^[11] 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

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a 3x5 meter trailer where the captive sat with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor.

Following the Supreme Court's ruling the Department of Defense set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants. ^{[11] [14]}

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: ^[15]

• Mustafa Abd al-Qawi Abd al-Aziz al-Shamiri was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... are members of Al Qaeda." ^[15]
• Mustafa Abd al-Qawi Abd al-Aziz al-Shamiri was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... traveled to Afghanistan for jihad." ^[15]
• Mustafa Abd al-Qawi Abd al-Aziz al-Shamiri was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges that the following detainees stayed in Al Qaeda, Taliban or other guest- or safehouses." ^[15]
• Mustafa Abd al-Qawi Abd al-Aziz al-Shamiri was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... took military or terrorist training in Afghanistan." ^[15]
• Mustafa Abd al-Qawi Abd al-Aziz al-Shamiri was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... fought for the Taliban." ^[15]
• Mustafa Abd al-Qawi Abd al-Aziz al-Shamiri was listed as one of the captives whose "names or aliases were found on material seized in raids on Al Qaeda safehouses and facilities." ^[15]
• Mustafa Abd al-Qawi Abd al-Aziz al-Shamiri was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges that the following detainees were captured under circumstances that strongly suggest belligerency." ^[15]
• Mustafa Abd al-Qawi Abd al-Aziz al-Shamiri was listed as one of the captives who was an "al Qaeda operative". ^[15]
• Mustafa Abd al-Qawi Abd al-Aziz al-Shamiri was listed as one of the "82 detainees made no statement to CSRT or ARB tribunals or made statements that do not bear materially on the military's allegations against them." ^[15]

References

1. https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/82880-isn-434-mustafa-abdul-qawi-abdul-aziz-al-shamyri/9c77af68da1f0e4a/full.pdf ^{[ bare URL PDF ]}
2. https://www.prs.mil/Portals/60/Documents/ISN434/20150925_U_ISN434_GOVERNMENTS_UNCLASSIFIED_SUMMARY_PUBLIC.pdf ^{[ bare URL PDF ]}
3. OARDEC (2006-05-15). "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 . Retrieved 2007-09-29.
4. Greg Myre (2017-01-16). "10 Guantanamo Prisoners Freed In Oman; 45 Detainees Remain". National Public Radio . Retrieved 2017-01-17. The freed prisoners were not identified by name or nationality, though the Oman News Agency, citing the country's Foreign Ministry, reported that the 10 had arrived in the country on Monday for "temporary residence."
5. Carol Rosenberg (2017-01-16). "U.S. sends 10 Guantánamo captives to Oman". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on 2017-01-17. A Pentagon official who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed that the transfer had taken place, downsizing the detainee population to 45. Neither Oman nor the official provided the identities of the 10 men who were sent there.
6. Carol Rosenberg (2017-01-16). "Victims of mistaken identity among the 10 sent from Guantánamo to Oman". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on 2017-01-18. A Pentagon statement did not explain why the Department of Defense chose to wait to identify the 10 men for more than a day after the Sultanate of Oman announced it had taken them in as "temporary" residents "in consideration to their humanitarian situation."
7. David Smith (2015-12-02). "Man held at Guantánamo for 13 years a case of mistaken identity". Mail and Guardian . Retrieved 2015-12-02. A man who has spent 13 years in the US prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, was arrested partly in a case of mistaken identity, US officials conceded Tuesday.
8. Brinley Brutton. "Guantanamo Bay Detainee Is Case of Mistaken Identity: DoD by F. BRINLEY BRUTON". NBC News . Retrieved 2015-12-02. A militant who fought for the Taliban in Afghanistan and has been held without charge at Guantanamo Bay for 13 years was largely the victim of mistaken identity, according to U.S. defense officials.
9. Rosenberg, Carol (21 January 2016). "Guantánamo parole board clears Yemeni who was victim of mistaken identity". Miami Herald . Retrieved 25 January 2016.
10. Carter, Jimmy (24 June 2012). "America's Shameful Human Rights Record". The New York Times .
11. "U.S. military reviews 'enemy combatant' use". USA Today. 2007-10-11. Archived from the original on 2007-10-23. Critics called it an overdue acknowledgment that the so-called Combatant Status Review Tribunals are unfairly geared toward labeling detainees the enemy, even when they pose little danger. Simply redoing the tribunals won't fix the problem, they said, because the system still allows coerced evidence and denies detainees legal representation.
12. Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court, New York Times , November 11, 2004 - mirror Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine
13. Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times , December 11, 2004
14. "Q&A: What next for Guantanamo prisoners?". BBC News. 2002-01-21. Archived from the original on 23 November 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-24.
15. Benjamin Wittes; Zaathira Wyne (2008-12-16). "The Current Detainee Population of Guantánamo: An Empirical Study" (PDF). The Brookings Institution. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-05-19. Retrieved 2010-02-16.