User:Geo Swan/Rahmatullah Sangaryar

Rahmatullah Sangaryar is a citizen of Afghanistan who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 890. American intelligence analysts estimate he was born in 1968, in Oruzgan, Afghanistan.

He claims he was an official in the Hamid Karzai administration.

He was transferred to Guantanamo on March 23, 2003, and was repatriated to Afghan custody in Block D, the "American wing" of the Pul-e-Charkii prison, on April 30, 2008.

Combatant Status Review Tribunal


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 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.

Allegations
A memorandum summarizing the evidence against Sangaryar prepared for his Combatan Status Reiew Tribunal, was among those released in March 2005. The allegations Sangaryar faced were:

Transcript
Sangaryar chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

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.

First annual Administrative Review Board
A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Rahmatullah Sangaryar's first annual Administrative Review Board on 21 November 2005.

The following primary factors favor continued detention

The following primary factors favor release or transfer

Transcript
Sangaryar chose to participate in his first annual Administrative Review Board hearing.

Enemy Combatant election form
Rahmatullah Sangaryar's Assisting Military Officer, consulting the Enemy Combatant election form, told the Board they met on December 20, 2005 for 55 minutes. He described Rahmatullah Sangaryar as "very polite and attentive".

Second annual Administrative Review Board
A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Rahmatullah Sangaryar's second annual Administrative Review Board on 20 November 2006.

The following primary factors favor continued detention

The following primary factors favor release or transfer

Transcript
Sangaryar chose to participate in his second annual Administrative Review Board hearing.

Eight pages of letters were withheld from publication.

Repatriation
Sangaryar was repatriated with eight other Guantanamo detainees on April 30, 2008. His release did not immediately become public. On November 25, 2008 the Department of Defense published a list of when detainees left Guantanamo. According to that list he was repatriated on April 30, 2008.

Canadian journalist Matthieu Aikins, writing in Harpers magazine, reported that former Guantanamo detainee Rahmatullah Sangaryar was pointed out to him at funeral in Quetta, where he was identified as a senior Taliban leader, sitting with other senior Taliban leaders.