Essa Al Murbati
Encyclopedia
Issa Ali Abdullah al Murbati is a citizen of Bahrain
who was held in extrajudicial detention
in the United States
Guantanamo Bay detainment camp
s, in Cuba
.
Al Murbati's Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 52.
American counter-terrorism
analysts estimate he was born in 1965, in Manama, Bahrain.
, al-Muarbati and Moazzam Begg
began playing chess
on a board the International Red Cross had brought for the detainees.
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 tribunal
s 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 Tribunal
s. 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
.
, prepared for his Combatant Status Review Tribunal
, were:
US District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton, on January 31, 2007.
Al Murbati has been represented by Joshua Colangelo-Bryan and Clive Stafford Smith
.
A campaign to free him is being led by Bahraini MP Mohammed Khalid
.
On Thursday August 23, 2007 the Gulf Daily News
reported that
Bahraini Member of Parliament Mohammed Khalid
had called for the Bahrain government to provide financial compensation to the released men.
Bahrain
' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...
who was held in extrajudicial detention
Extrajudicial detention
Arbitrary or extrajudicial detention is the detention of individuals by a state, without ever laying formal charges against them.Although it has a long history of legitimate use in wartime , detention without charge, sometimes in secret, has been one of the hallmarks of totalitarian states...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Guantanamo Bay detainment camp
Guantanamo Bay detainment camp
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a detainment and interrogation facility of the United States located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. The facility was established in 2002 by the Bush Administration to hold detainees from the war in Afghanistan and later Iraq...
s, in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
.
Al Murbati's Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 52.
American counter-terrorism
Counter-terrorism
Counter-terrorism is the practices, tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, militaries, police departments and corporations adopt to prevent or in response to terrorist threats and/or acts, both real and imputed.The tactic of terrorism is available to insurgents and governments...
analysts estimate he was born in 1965, in Manama, Bahrain.
Detention in Kandahar
While held at Kandahar AirfieldKandahar Airfield
Kandahar International Airport is located 10 miles south-east of Kandahar City in Afghanistan. The airport was built by the United States in the 1960s, under the United States Agency for International Development program. It may have been intended to be used as a possible U.S...
, al-Muarbati and Moazzam Begg
Moazzam Begg
Moazzam Begg , is a British Pakistani Muslim who was held in extrajudicial detention in the Bagram Theater Internment Facility and the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp, in Cuba, by the U.S...
began playing chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
on a board the International Red Cross had brought for the detainees.
Hunger strike and Force-Feeding
Al Murbati participated in the hunger strikes of 2005.Combatant Status Review Tribunal
Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva ConventionsGeneva Conventions
The Geneva Conventions comprise four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish the standards of international law for the humanitarian treatment of the victims of war...
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 tribunal
Competent tribunal
Competent Tribunal is a term used Article 5 paragraph 2 of the Third Geneva Convention, which states:-ICRC commentary on competent tribunals:...
s to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
status.
Subsequently the Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunal
Combatant Status Review Tribunal
The Combatant Status Review Tribunals were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as "enemy combatants". The CSRTs were established July 7, 2004 by order of U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense...
s. 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
Enemy combatant
Enemy combatant is a term historically referring to members of the armed forces of the state with which another state is at war. Prior to 2008, the definition was: "Any person in an armed conflict who could be properly detained under the laws and customs of war." In the case of a civil war or an...
.
Recorder Exhibit List
Unusually Al Murbati's dossier contains an Recorder Exhibit List.| # | Title | Support | Location (Paragraph) |
Classification |
| R1 | Unclassified Summary | UNCLASSIFIED | ||
| R2 | FBI Request for Redaction of National Security Information 15 Sept 04 | Exhibit R8 |
UNCLASSIFIED | |
| R3 | USDHS, Terrorist Org Ref Guide, dtd Jan 04, pg 3 | 3.a.4. | UNCLASSIFIED | |
| R4 | SIR, dtd 18 Dec 02 | 3.a.1. 3.a.2 |
Subject | SECRET |
| R5 | JTF- 170 Knowledgeability Brief, dtd 13 Jun 02 | 3.a.1. 3.a.2. 3.b.1. |
Subject/5.F. Subject 5G |
SECRET |
| R6 | SIR, dtd 8 Oct 02 | 3.a.3, | 2.P.2. | SECRET |
| R7 | FBI 302, dtd 09 Jun 02 | 3.b.1. 3.b.2. 3.b.3. |
10. 8. 9. |
FOUO//LES |
| R8 | Results of Quarterly Review of Community Counterterrorism Tiers | 3.a.4, | Page 2 | SECRET/NOFORN |
| R9 | CITF Assessment 10-JAN-03 | Summary | SECRET//NOFORN | |
| R10 | JTF GTMO Baseball Card | SECRET/NOFORN | ||
| Rll | MFR SA ---------------- 24 September 2004 | FYI | SECRET//NOFORN | |
| Additional information added on 27 Sept 04 per board request of 25 Sept 04 | ||||
| R12 | OARDEC INTEL RS, RESPONSE dtd 25 Sep 04 | R5, pg 3 and date R10 |
SECRET | |
| R13 | JT assessment | R7, pg 2 | SECRET//NOFORN | |
| R8 | Results of Quarterly Review of Community Counterterrorism Tiers | F7, pg 2, | added page 3 | SECRETI/NOFORN |
Allegations
The allegations against Al Murbati, from the Summary of Evidence memoSummary of Evidence (CSRT)
Counter-terrorism analysts prepared a Summary of Evidence memo for the Combatant Status Review Tribunals of the 558 captives who remained in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba in the fall of 2004.-The 2005 release:...
, prepared for his Combatant Status Review Tribunal
Combatant Status Review Tribunal
The Combatant Status Review Tribunals were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as "enemy combatants". The CSRTs were established July 7, 2004 by order of U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense...
, were:
Habeas corpus submission
Al Murbati is one of the sixteen Guantanamo captives whose amalgamated habeas corpus submissions were heard byUS District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton, on January 31, 2007.
Al Murbati has been represented by Joshua Colangelo-Bryan and Clive Stafford Smith
Clive Stafford Smith
Clive Adrian Stafford Smith OBE is a British [see talk] lawyer who specialises in the areas of civil rights and the death penalty in the United States of America....
.
A campaign to free him is being led by Bahraini MP Mohammed Khalid
Mohammed Khalid
One of Bahrain’s most outspoken Islamist MPs is Sheikh Mohammed Khalid, the Al-Menbar Islamic Society representative from the Northern Governorate...
.
Release
Al Murbati was released during August 2007. He was the last Bahraini to be released.On Thursday August 23, 2007 the Gulf Daily News
Gulf Daily News
The Gulf Daily News is an English-language newspaper published in the Kingdom of Bahrain by Al Hilal Group. It is distributed locally in Bahrain. It is owned by the Al Hilal Group, which publishes 13 other newspapers and magazines, including the local Arabic newspaper Akhbar Al Khaleej. The paper,...
reported that
Bahraini Member of Parliament Mohammed Khalid
Mohammed Khalid
One of Bahrain’s most outspoken Islamist MPs is Sheikh Mohammed Khalid, the Al-Menbar Islamic Society representative from the Northern Governorate...
had called for the Bahrain government to provide financial compensation to the released men.
See also
- Solitary confinementSolitary confinementSolitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...
- Juma Mohammed Al Dossary
- Salah Abdul Rasool Al BlooshiSalah Abdul Rasool Al Blooshi-Transcript:There is no record that captive 227participated in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.-Habeas corpus:A writ of habeas corpus, Salah Abdul Rasul Ali Abdul Rahman Al Balushi v. George W...
- Adel Kamel Hajee
- Shaikh Salman Ebrahim Mohamed Ali Al KhalifaSalman Ebrahim Mohamed Ali Al KhalifaSheikh Salman Ebrahim Mohamed Ali Al Khalifa is a citizen of Bahrain who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba....
- Abdulla Majid Al NaimiAbdulla Majid Al NaimiBorn on March 9, 1982, in Manama, Bahrain, Abdulla Majid Al Naimi is a Bahraini, formerly held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba....
External links
- Isa al-Murbati, the last Bahraini in Guantánamo, returns home (and a former Taliban minister returns to Afghanistan) Andy Worthington
- Bushehri,Shereen Bahrain Urged to Stand Up for Rights of Citizens in Guantanamo Arab NewsArab NewsArab News is an English-language daily newspaper published in Saudi Arabia, in the cities of Jeddah, Riyadh, and Dammam. The Editor-in-Chief is Khaled Al-Maeena. The publisher of Arab News is Saudi Research & Publishing Company , a subsidiary of Saudi Research & Marketing Group .Arab News was...
February 6, 2005 - Forced feeding at Guantanamo is now acknowledged, New York Times, 22 February 2006