Abdul Razak (Guantanamo detainee 1043)

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For other individuals named Abdul Razak, or some variations thereof, see Abdul Razak (disambiguation)

Abdul Razak is a citizen of Afghanistan, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] His detainee ID number is 1043.

1 Combatant Status Review Tribunal
- 1.1 Allegations
- 1.2 Testimony
2 Administrative Review Board hearing
3 References

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a small trailer, the same width, but shorter, than a mobile home. The Tribunal's President sat in the big chair. The detainee sat with their hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor in the white, plastic garden chair. A one way mirror behind the Tribunal's President allowed observers to observe clandestinely. In theory the open sessions of the Tribunals were open to the press. Three chairs were reserved for them. In practice the Tribunal only intermittently told the press that Tribunals were being held. And when they did they kept the detainee's identities secret. In practice almost all Tribunals went unobserved. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 1st Class Christopher Mobley

Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct a competent tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status.

Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants -- rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant.

[edit] Allegations

As a result of Freedom of Information Act requests the DoD released five pdf files that contained 507 memoranda that each contained the "summary of evidence" against a single detainee. Razak's memorandum was one of those released in March of 2005.^[2] The allegations against Razak were:

a. The detainee is a member of the Taliban:

The detainee served as the ######### ######### ######## ######### for the Taliban Government from 1996 until the collapse of the Taliban in 2001.
The detainee was captured on 01 April 2003 by soldiers of the Afghan Military Forces (AMF) near Zamtu in the Ganda Ab Region. He was turned over to United States Forces later that same day.
When captured by AMF soldiers, the detainee was in possession of a Kalashnikov rifle.

[edit] Testimony

Razak chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[3]

[edit] Administrative Review Board hearing

Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board hearings. The Administrative Review Boards weren't authorized to review whether a detainee qualified for POW status, and they weren't authorized to review whether a detainee should have been classified as an "enemy combatant".

They were authorized to consider whether a detainee should continue to be detained by the United States, because they continued to pose a threat -- or whether they could safely be repatriated to the custody of their home country, or whether they could be set free.

Razak chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.^[4]