User:Geo Swan/Ahmed Bin Saleh Bel Bacha

Ahmed Bin Saleh Belbacha is a citizen of Algeria who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba from February 9, 2002 to March 13, 2014.

His lawyers assert that they can document he was working in a hotel in London at the time the allegations used to justify his continued detention placed him supporting terrorism, in Afghanistan. In 2009, when Belbacha filed a request that he not be returned to Algeria, because he feared persecution, an Algerian court convicted him, in absentia, and gave him a 20 year sentence.

However, after a regime change, and assurance from the new regime that he would be treated fairly, Belbacha agreed to be repatriated on March 13, 2014.

Background
The Department of Defense reports that he was born on November 13, 1969, in Algiers, Algeria. Belbacha sought asylum in the UK, where he worked at a hotel. In the autumn of 2001, he went to Pakistan for a monthlong vacation. He was seized by villagers in Peshawar who sold him for a bounty offered by the U.S. military and was sent to Guantanamo Bay Prison.

Human rights group Reprieve's account of why Belbacha was in Afghanistan was that he fled Morocco out of fear of Islamic militants. He had graduated with a degree in accountancy, undergone his compulsory military service, and then worked as an accountant for a government agency. According to Reprieve when the Algierian military called him up for additional military service anti-government Islamic militants threatened to retaliate against his family if he complied with the call up order. Belbacha fled to the United Kingdom, and sought refugee status, based on his fears. When it seemed clear he would be denied refugee status in the UK, he felt he had no choice but to leave for a country with looser residency requirements, before the UK denied his refugee status, and deported him back to Algieria. Pakistan and Afghanistan had looser residency requirements, so he fled there.

Ahmed Belbacha arrived at Guantanamo on February 9, 2002, and has been held there until March 13, 2014.

Belbacha has been identified as a captive with serious mental health issues.

By 2014, after a regime change in Algieria, lawyers at human rights organization Reprieve  "met with representatives of the Algerian government and have been assured that Ahmed will be treated fairly and humanely on his return to the country."

Official status reviews
Initially the Bush Presidency asserted that the United States could seize and indefinitely hold individuals suspected of ties to terrorism, without explaining why they were being held. However, in 2004, the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, that the captives had to be informed of the allegations that for their detention, and had to be offered an opportunity to try to refute those allegations.

Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants
In 2004, in response to the Supreme Court's ruling in Rasul v. Bush the Department of Defense set up a new agency, the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants (OARDEC). It convened 558 Combatant Status Review Tribunals from August 2004 through January 2005. Ahmed Belbacha's CSR Tribunal was convened in October 2004. He had two subsequent Administrative Review Board hearings convened in 2005 and 2006. His 2006 hearing cleared his for release or transfer.

Scholars at the Brookings Institute, lead by Benjamin Wittes, listed the captives still held in Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain common allegations :


 * Ahmed Bin Saleh Bel Bacha was listed as one of the captives who the Wittes team unable to identify  as presently cleared for release or transfer.
 * Ahmed Bin Saleh Bel Bacha was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... are associated with Al Qaeda."
 * Ahmed Bin Saleh Bel Bacha was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... traveled to Afghanistan for jihad."
 * Ahmed Bin Saleh Bel Bacha was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... stayed in Al Qaeda, Taliban or other guest- or safehouses."
 * Ahmed Bin Saleh Bel Bacha was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... took military or terrorist training in Afghanistan."
 * Ahmed Bin Saleh Bel Bacha was listed as one of the captives who was a foreign fighter.
 * Ahmed Bin Saleh Bel Bacha was listed as one of the "82 detainees [who] made no statement to CSRT or ARB tribunals or made statements that do not bear materially on the military’s allegations against them."

Habeas corpus petition
A writ of habeas corpus was filed on Ahmed Belbacha's behalf. In 2007 the United States Supreme Court declined to take up consideration of Belbacha`s habeas petition, after the Military Commissions Act of 2006 cut off Guantanamo captives` access to the US civilian justice system. But the Supreme Court did rule all captives, including Belbacha, were entitled to access the civilian justice system for consideration of their habeas petitions in Boumediene v. Bush on June 20, 2008.

Formerly secret Joint-Task-Force-Guantanamo reviews
On April 25, 2011 whistleblower organization WikiLeaks published formerly secret detainee assessments for almost all the captives. Belbacha's assessment was from January 15, 2006. His assessment was signed by camp commandant Jay W. Hood, was eight pages long, and recommended continued detention under DoD control.

Hunger striker
Belbacha was one of the more determined hunger strikers during the 2013 Guantanamo hunger striker. According to Carol Rosenberg, Belbacha was one of the hunger strikers the Miami Herald was able to identify as a hunger striker who was subjected to a regular force-feeding regime. In February of 2014, in what Lyle Denniston of Scotusblog described as a "rare victory" Belbacha and four other long term hunger strikers won the right to challenge whether the force-feeding techniques were overly brutal.

The ruling was a split decision of a three judge panel from the Washington DC Circuit Court of Appeal. Kevin Rawlinson, writing in The Guardian, reported that Belbacha had testified that "solitary confinement was used as a punishment for prisoners who made political statements, among other secret measures employed by the US military to break detainees' spirit."

Repatriation issues
In July 2007 US District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer turned down an "emergency motion" to repatriate Belbacha to Algeria. Zachary Katznelson Belbacha's lawyer, asserted that the USA could not trust any assurances from the Algerian government that they would not subject him to cruel or inhumane treatment.

Katznelson stated that Belbacha was unjustly accused.

On April 5, 2010, another emergency order requesting a stay of repatriation was filed.