Ruhal Ahmed

Last updated

Ruhal Ahmed
Ruhal Ahmed.png
Ruhal Ahmed in 2007
BornRhuhel Ahmed
(1981-11-03) 3 November 1981 (age 42)
Birmingham, West Midlands, England
ArrestedOctober 2001 (2001-10)
Afghanistan
Northern Alliance
ReleasedMarch 2004 (2004-03)
United Kingdom
Citizenship United Kingdom
Detained at  Guantanamo Bay detention camp
ISN 110
StatusRepatriated
SpouseShaeda Ahmed
ParentsRiasoth Ahmed (father)
Interview with Ruhal Ahmed by Laura Poitras in 2010

Ruhal Ahmed (also spelled Rhuhel Ahmed) (born 3 November 1981) [1] is a British citizen who was detained without trial for over two years by the United States government, beginning in Afghanistan in 2001, and then in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. His Internment Serial Number was 110. Ahmed was returned to the United Kingdom in March 2004, where he was released the next day without charges. [2]

Contents

He was one of three British men, friends from Tipton, United Kingdom, who had been detained. They became known as the Tipton Three. In August 2004, Ahmed, Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal compiled and released a report on their abuses while in US custody. [3]

In Rasul v. Rumsfeld, the Tipton Three and Jamal Udeen Al-Harith, four former Guantánamo Bay internees, sued former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. They charge that illegal interrogation tactics were permitted to be used against them by Rumsfeld and the US military chain of command.

The 2006 film, The Road to Guantánamo, is a docu-drama by Michael Winterbottom depicting their account of their detention. Ahmed was refused a visa by Australia to travel there to promote the film. [4]

Travel and detention

With his friends, Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal, in October 2001, weeks after the 9/11 attacks in the United States, Ahmed travelled to his country of origin Pakistan, reportedly for a friend's wedding but while there went into Afghanistan and got caught when war broke out.

They were captured by soldiers of the Northern Alliance and transferred to the custody of the US Army, as they had purportedly lost all their identification and luggage. They were detained there and transported to Guantanamo Bay detention camps on US territory in Cuba, where they were severely interrogated and treated as enemy combatants.[ citation needed ]

Return to UK

They were returned to the UK in March 2004, and released the next day without charges. In August 2004, they compiled and released a report on their abuses while in US custody. [3]

Three suicides at Guantanamo, June 2006

The Associated Press quoted Ahmed following the US announcement of the deaths of three detainees at Guantanamo in June 2006, who were alleged to have committed suicide. [5]

He said, "There is no hope in Guantanamo. The only thing that goes through your mind day after day is how to get justice or how to kill yourself. It is the despair - not the thought of martyrdom - that consumes you there." He went on, "A Saudi detainee in the cell in front of us had had enough. We could hear him rip up his sheets and tie it to the wire mesh roof of the cell. He jumped off his sink and tried to hang himself. We shouted to the military police and they came and saved him." Last, he said, "It's weird because when we left we weren't even that religious, We were young - average British lads. Obviously if we knew what we were getting ourselves into we would have never gone."

Ahmed has taken part in a campaign against torture, organized by Amnesty International. [6]

McClatchy interview

On 15 June 2008, the McClatchy News Service published articles based on interviews with 66 former Guantanamo captives. McClatchy reporters interviewed Ruhal Ahmed in Britain. [7] [8]

Ahmed said when he returned to Tipton, someone had hung an effigy clad in an orange Guantanamo overall, labelled "Tipton Taliban will die." [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

Rasul v. Bush, 542 U.S. 466 (2004), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court in which the Court held that foreign nationals held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp could petition federal courts for writs of habeas corpus to review the legality of their detention. The Court's 6–3 judgment on June 28, 2004, reversed a D.C. Circuit decision which had held that the judiciary has no jurisdiction to hear any petitions from foreign nationals held in Guantanamo Bay.

Shafiq Rasul is a British citizen who was a detainee held at Guantanamo Bay by the United States, which treated him an unlawful combatant. His detainee ID number was 86.

Asif Iqbal is a British citizen who was held in extrajudicial detention as a terror suspect in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps in Cuba from early 2002 to 9 March 2004.

Jamal Udeen Al-Harith, born Ronald Fiddler also known as Abu-Zakariya al-Britani, was a British citizen who reportedly died carrying out a suicide bombing in Iraq in February 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Algerian Six</span> Six Algerian-born Bosnian men held at Guantanamo Bay detention camp since 2002

The Algerian Six were six Algerian men, who gained citizenship of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War, five of whom will continue to hold a dual Algerian and Bosnian citizenship, and who were imprisoned without charges at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002.

Nizar Sassi is a citizen of France who was detained by the United States in their Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 325.

<i>The Road to Guantánamo</i> 2006 British docudrama film by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross

The Road to Guantánamo, alternatively The Road to Guantanamo, is a British 2006 docudrama film written and directed by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross about the incarceration of three British citizens, who were captured in 2001 in Afghanistan and detained by the United States there and for more than two years at the detainment camp in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. It premiered at the Berlinale on 14 February 2006, and was first shown in the UK on Channel 4 on 9 March 2006. The following day it was the first film to be released simultaneously in cinemas, on DVD, and on the Internet.

Adel al Zamel is a citizen of Kuwait who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.

The Tipton Three is the collective name given to three British citizens from Tipton, England who were held in extrajudicial detention by the United States government for two years in Guantanamo Bay detainment camp in Cuba.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Airat Vakhitov</span>

Aiat Nasimovich Vahitov, also spelled Ayrat Wakhitov or Vahidov is an ethnic Tatar citizen of Russia who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camp, in Cuba. He was repatriated with six other Russians in February 2004. Fluent in Arabic, Pashto, Persian, Urdu and Russian, he also spoke basic English.

In United States law, habeas corpus is a recourse challenging the reasons or conditions of a person's detention under color of law. The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. A persistent standard of indefinite detention without trial and incidents of torture led the operations of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to be challenged internationally as an affront to international human rights, and challenged domestically as a violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments of the United States Constitution, including the right of petition for habeas corpus. On 19 February 2002, Guantanamo detainees petitioned in federal court for a writ of habeas corpus to review the legality of their detention.

Jon Mohammad Barakzai is an Afghan man who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. Mohammed was repatriated in October 2002, together with three elderly men, two Afghanis and a Pakistani. The men described being chained, for hours, during their interrogations.

Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal, Ruhal Ahmed, and Jamal Al-Harith, four former Guantánamo Bay detainees, filed suit in 2004 in the United States District Court in Washington, DC against former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. They charged that illegal interrogation tactics were permitted to be used against them by Secretary Rumsfeld and the military chain of command. The plaintiffs each sought seek compensatory damages for torture and arbitrary detention while being held at Guantánamo.

Asadullah Jan is a citizen of Pakistan who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 47. Joint Task Force -- Guantanamo analysts estimate he was born in 1981. However, he says he was only sixteen when he was captured in 2001.

Noor Habib Ullah is a citizen of Afghanistan who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. Habibullah was one of three former captives who McClatchy Newspapers profiled; he also appeared in a BBC interview which claimed he was abused while interned at Bagram. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 626.

Ejaz Ahmad Khan is a citizen of Pakistan who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.

Hamood Ullah Khan is a citizen of Pakistan who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 145.

Abdul Majid Mahmoud was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 624.

Hafiz Liaqat Manzoor is a citizen of Pakistan who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 139.

References

  1. ↑ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  2. ↑ "Five of nine Britons released from Guantanamo Bay". BBC News . 9 March 2004. Retrieved 30 September 2005.
  3. 1 2 "Britons allege Guantanamo abuse". BBC News . 4 August 2004. Retrieved 29 September 2005.
  4. ↑ "ASIO thwarts film promotion". The Sydney Morning Herald . 28 October 2006. Retrieved 3 November 2006.
  5. ↑ "AP: Gitmo Movie Subjects Discuss Suicide". The Washington Post . 12 June 2006. Retrieved 26 December 2006.
  6. ↑ "Amnestys frontfigur förespråkar dödsstraff". Aftonbladet . 26 June 2007. Retrieved 25 August 2007.
  7. 1 2 Lasseter, Tom (15 June 2008). "Guantanamo Inmate Database". McClatchy News Service. p. 6. Archived from the original on 14 July 2011. Retrieved 1 August 2008.
  8. ↑ Lasseter, Tom (15 June 2008). "Guantanamo Inmate Database: Ruhal Ahmed". McClatchy News Service. p. 6. Archived from the original on 20 September 2008. Retrieved 1 August 2008.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.