Fouzi Khalid Abdullah Al Odah is a

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

i citizen formerly held in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Guantanamo Bay detainment camp The Guantanamo Bay detention camp ( es, Centro de detención de la bahía de Guantánamo) is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo (), on the coast of Guant ...

s, in

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. He had been detained without charge in Guantanamo Bay since 2002.documents (.pdf)
from Fouzi Khalid Abdullah Al Awda's ''

Combatant Status Review Tribunal The Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT) 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 esta ...

'' He was a plaintiff in the ongoing case, ''

Al Odah v. United States ''Al Odah v. United States'' is a court case filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights and co-counsels challenging the legality of the continued detention as enemy combatants of Guantanamo detainees. It was consolidated with ''Boumediene v. B ...

'', which challenged his detention, along with that of fellow detainees. The case was widely acknowledged to be one of the most significant to be heard by the Supreme Court in the current term. The

US Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...

reports that he was born in 1977, in

Kuwait City Kuwait City ( ar, مدينة الكويت) is the capital and largest city of Kuwait. Located at the heart of the country on the south shore of Kuwait Bay on the Persian Gulf, it is the political, cultural and economical centre of the emirate, ...

, Kuwait.

U.S. District Court Judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

Colleen Kollar-Kotelly Colleen Constance Kollar-Kotelly (born April 17, 1943) is an American lawyer serving as a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and was previously presiding judge of the Foreign Intell ...

's ruling on al Odah's

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

petition was published on September 1, 2009. She denied his habeas corpus petition based on the assumption that it was more likely than not that Odah was a foot soldier fighting in Afghanistan against US troops. Fouzi Khalid Abdullah Al Odah arrived at the

Guantanamo detention camps The Guantanamo Bay detention camp ( es, Centro de detención de la bahía de Guantánamo) is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo (), on the coast of Guant ...

on February 28, 2002, where he remained for 12 years, 8 months, 8 days until his transfer to Kuwait's rehabilitation program for former Guantanamo detainees on November 5, 2014.

Alleged affiliation with al Qaeda

The U.S. Government contends that al Odah's true purpose in Afghanistan was to join the Taliban and al Qaeda. Supporting this, al Odah's name and phone number appeared in a document found on the official al Qaeda website, and his passport was recovered from an al Qaeda safehouse in Karachi. The appellate court's rejection of his habeas corpus petition also refers to "additional incriminating evidence" discovered since his capture, however the nature of that evidence is redacted in the unclassified version of the opinion.

Capture

According to an interview Fawzi's father, Khalid al-Odah, gave to

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

, Fawzi traveled in 2001 to the

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

border area in order to do charitable outreach work,Interview
with Khalid al-Odah, father of Fawzi Al-Odah who is detained in Guantanamo Bay , ''

'', June 1, 2005 Following the

attacks of September 11, 2001 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated Suicide attack, suicide List of terrorist incidents, terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, ...

, Fawzi fled Afghanistan, intending to return home to Kuwait. Fawzi successfully crossed the border into Pakistan but was then captured by Pakistanis that his father alleges were bounty hunters who handed Fawzi and eleven other Kuwaitis over to American authorities. The Kuwaitis were then transported to Cuba.

Official status reviews

Originally the

Bush Bush commonly refers to: * Shrub, a small or medium woody plant Bush, Bushes, or the bush may also refer to: People * Bush (surname), including any of several people with that name **Bush family, a prominent American family that includes: *** ...

Presidency A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified by a ...

asserted that captives apprehended in the ''"

war on terror The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international Counterterrorism, counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campa ...

"'' were not covered by the

Geneva Conventions upright=1.15, Original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Conven ...

, and could be held indefinitely, without charge, and without an open and transparent review of the justifications for their detention. In 2004, the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

ruled, in

Rasul v. Bush ''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 ...

, that Guantanamo captives were entitled to being informed of the allegations justifying their detention, and were entitled to try to refute them.

Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants

Following the Supreme Court's ruling, the

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philippin ...

set up the

Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants The Office for the Administrative Review of the Detention of Enemy Combatants, established in 2004 by the Bush administration's Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, is a United States military body responsible for organising Combatant St ...

. Scholars at the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in ec ...

, led by

Benjamin Wittes Benjamin Wittes (born November 5, 1969) is an American legal journalist and Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, where he is the Research Director in Public Law, and Co-Director of the Harvard Law School–Brookings ...

, studied the OARDEC documents and listed the captives still held in Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain common allegations: * Fouzi Khalid Abdullah Al Odah was listed as one of the captives who ''"The military alleges ... are associated with both Al Qaeda and the Taliban."'' * Fouzi Khalid Abdullah Al Odah was listed as one of the captives who ''"The military alleges that the following detainees stayed in Al Qaeda, Taliban or other guest- or safehouses."'' * Fouzi Khalid Abdullah Al Odah was listed as one of the captives who ''"The military alleges ... were at Tora Bora."'' * Fouzi Khalid Abdullah Al Odah was listed as one of the captives whose ''"names or aliases were found on material seized in raids on Al Qaeda safehouses and facilities."'' * Fouzi Khalid Abdullah Al Odah was listed as one of the captives who was a foreign fighter. * Fouzi Khalid Abdullah Al Odah was listed as one of the ''"34 aptivesadmit to some lesser measure of affiliation—like staying in Taliban or Al Qaeda guesthouses or spending time at one of their training camps."'' * Fouzi Khalid Abdullah Al Odah was listed as one of the captives who had admitted ''"some form of associational conduct."''

Habeas petition -- Al Odah v. United States

'' is a

writ of habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

petition on behalf of Guantanamo detainees. This consolidated case currently represents four plaintiffs: Fawzi Khalid Abdullah Fahad Al Odah, Fayiz Mohammed, Ahmed Al Kandari, Khalid Abdullah Mishal Al Mutairi, and Fouad Mahmoud Al Rabiah. Al Odah v. United States was originally filed April 2002 on behalf of twelve imprisoned Kuwaitis, including Al Odah, seeking the right of habeas corpus. The case was dismissed in May 2002 following a government motion to dismiss the habeas corpus petition. On June 28, 2004, the Supreme Court issued an opinion on a related Guantanamo case, ''

'', affirming the right of Guantanamo detainees to challenge their imprisonment in the U.S. federal court system. Under this ruling, detainees such as those represented in ''Al Odah'' would be able to file habeas corpus petitions in U.S. courts. In April 2007, the Supreme Court declined to hear two cases challenging the Military Commissions Act: ''

Boumediene v. Bush ''Boumediene v. Bush'', 553 U.S. 723 (2008), was a writ of ''habeas corpus'' submission made in a civilian court of the United States on behalf of Lakhdar Boumediene, a naturalized citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, held in military detention by ...

'' and ''Al Odah v. United States'' On June 29, 2007, the court reversed that decision, releasing an order that expressed their intent to hear the challenge. The two cases have been consolidated into one. Oral arguments were heard on December 5, 2007. The decision, striking down the Military Commissions Act, was handed down on June 12, 2008. On July 18, 2008,

David J. Cynamon David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

filed a "PETITIONERS’ STATUS REPORT" in Al Odah, v. United States

Civil Action No. CV 02-0828 ''Al Odah v. United States'' is a court case filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights and co-counsels challenging the legality of the continued detention as enemy combatants of Guantanamo detainees. It was consolidated with '' Boumediene v. ...

(CKK) on behalf of

Fawzi Khalid Abdullah Fahad Al Odah Fouzi Khalid Abdullah Al Odah is a Kuwaiti citizen formerly held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. He had been detained without charge in Guantanamo Bay since 2002.Fayiz Mohammed Ahmen Al Kandari Faiz Mohammed Ahmed al-Kandari (born 3 June 1977) is a Kuwaiti citizen who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States' Guantanamo Bay detainment camp in Cuba, from 2002 to 2016. He has never been charged with war crimes. The US De ...

Khalid Abdullah Mishal Al Mutairi Khalid Abdullah Mishal al Mutairi (born June 18, 1975), also known as Khalid Hassan, is a Kuwaiti charity worker who was unlawfully detained in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. He was ordered released in August 2009, ...

Fouad Mahmoud Al Rabiah Fouad Mahmoud al Rabiah (born June 24, 1959) is a Kuwaiti, who was held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba

Joint Review Task Force

When he assumed office in January 2009,

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

made a number of promises about the future of Guantanamo. He promised the use of torture would cease at the camp. He promised to institute a new review system. That new review system was composed of officials from six departments, where the OARDEC reviews were conducted entirely by the Department of Defense. When it reported back, a year later, the

Joint Review Task Force The Guantanamo Review Task Force was created by Executive Order 13492 issued by President of the United States Barack Obama on January 22, 2009, his second full day in office. United States Attorney General Eric Holder announced Matthew G. Olsen a ...

classified some individuals as too dangerous to be transferred from Guantanamo, even though there was no evidence to justify laying charges against them. On April 9, 2013, that document was made public after a

Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request: * Freedom of Information Act 1982, the Australian act * ...

request. Fouzi Khalid Abdullah Al Odah was one of the 71 individuals deemed too innocent to charge, but too dangerous to release. Although Obama promised that those deemed too innocent to charge, but too dangerous to release would start to receive reviews from a

Periodic Review Board The Periodic Review Boards administrate a US ''"administrative procedure"'' for recommending whether certain individuals held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba are safe to release or transfer, or whether they should continue to be held ...

less than a quarter of men have received a review.

Meetings with attorneys

On September 28, 2005, the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

reported on a meeting between attorneys Thomas Wilner and Kristine Huskey and their Kuwaiti clients.Lawyers Visit Detainees on Hunger Strike
''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', September 21, 2005 Al-Odah told his lawyers that camp authorities had warned the hunger strikers that they would start strapping them in "

restraint chair A restraint chair is a type of physical restraint that is used to force an individual to remain seated in one place to prevent injury and harm to themselves or others. They are commonly used in prisons for violent inmates and hospitals for out of ...

s" during their force-feedings. In an interview in

Marie Claire ''Marie Claire'' is a French international monthly magazine first published in France in 1937, followed by the United Kingdom in 1941. Since then various editions are published in many countries and languages. The feature editions focus on wo ...

magazine, Huskey described her surprise that when she first met with Guantanamo clients, like al-Odah, they preferred food brought from Guantanamo fast food outlets to the Arabic delicacies she and her colleagues had brought from the Continental US.

Media Editorials

Fawzi al-Odah's father, Khalid al-Odah, wrote an

Op-Ed An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. O ...

in the ''Washington Post'', on September 2, 2006, entitled: "''Put My Son on Trial -- or Free Him''".Put My Son on Trial -- or Free Him
''

'', September 2, 2006 In the article Khalid argues that "hundreds of innocent men sit in prison", who could have been freed, if American authorities had granted them the protections of the rule of law and granted them a fair trial in a traditional court of law. Al Odah's father stated that Fawzi had always been an admirer of the American system. The ''Washington Post'' identifies Khalid Al-Odah as the founder of the Kuwaiti Family Committee. It states:

The writer founded the Kuwaiti Family Committee four years ago to secure the legal rights of foreign nationals imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay.

The New York Times editorial board has spoken out in favor of the plaintiffs in the ''Al Odah v. United States'' case, calling it "the Supreme Court showdown of the year"."Civil liberties groups — and this Editorial Board", write the editors, "believe it is important for the Supreme Court to make clear that the detainees have a constitutional right to have a judge determine whether they are being properly held.".

Al Odah v. United States

Fouzi Khalid Abdullah Al Odah was among the eleven captives covered in the July 2008 "Petitioners' Status Report" filed by

in ''

'' on behalf of the four remaining Kuwaiti prisoners in Guantanamo. Seven other prisoners were

amalgamate Amalgamation is the process of combining or uniting multiple entities into one form. Amalgamation, amalgam, and other derivatives may refer to: Mathematics and science * Amalgam (chemistry), the combination of mercury with another metal **Pan am ...

d to the case, which charged that none of the men had been cleared for release, even though the government had completed

factual return Factual returns are documents a government has to file in response to habeas corpus petitions. Habeas corpus is a legal tool in the English tradition of justice, dating back to ''Magna Carta'', prohibiting arbitrary arrest and detention. Captiv ...

s for them—and those factual returns had contained redacted sections. The decision, striking down the Military Commissions Act, was handed down on June 12, 2008.Stout, David. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''
Justices Rule Terror Suspects Can Appeal in Civilian Courts
June 13, 2008 On May 12, 2007, the ''

Kuwait Times ''Kuwait Times'' is an English-language daily published in Kuwait. It is the first English language paper in the Persian Gulf region. History and profile ''Kuwait Times'' was founded by Yousuf Saleh Alyan in 1961. The 36-page broadsheet provid ...

'' reported that Kuwait and the USA concluded negotiations regarding the repatriation of the remaining Kuwaiti captives. Nevertheless, Khaled Al Mutayri, Fouzi Khalid Abdullah Al Awda,

Fouad Mahoud Hasan Al Rabia Fouad Mahmoud al Rabiah (born June 24, 1959) is a Kuwaiti, who was held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba Faiz Mohammed Ahmed Al Kandari Faiz Mohammed Ahmed al-Kandari (born 3 June 1977) is a Kuwaiti citizen who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States' Guantanamo Bay detainment camp in Cuba, from 2002 to 2016. He has never been charged with war crimes. The US De ...

continue to be held as of August 1, 2009.

US District Court Judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

Colleen Kollar-Kottely ordered the immediate repatriation of Khaled Al Mutairi on July 29, 2009. According to ''

The Jurist ''The Jurist: Studies in Church Law and Ministry'' or simply ''The Jurist'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal and the only journal published in the United States devoted to the study and promotion of the canon law of the Catholic Church. It was ...

'' the habeas corpus cases for the other three men are expected to conclude in August and September 2009. Kollar-Kotelly ruled on al Odah's habeas corpus petition on August 24, 2009. The 32-page ruling was published on September 1, 2009, after classified portions had been redacted. She ruled that the USA could consider al Odah was an "

enemy combatant Enemy combatant is a person who, either lawfully or unlawfully, engages in hostilities for the other side in an armed conflict. Usually enemy combatants are members of the armed forces of the state with which another state is at war. In the case ...

", without regard to whether the training camp he attended was actually the al Farouq training camp, because he had acknowledged attending ''a'' training camp, for a single day.

Renewed repatriation negotiations

In July 2013, Cynamon said the Obama administration was renewing repatriation negotiations after ''"years of radio silence"''.

Repatriated in November 2014

He was repatriated in November 2014, following the recommendation of the

References

External links

Fouzi Khalid Abdullah Al Awda's Guantanamo detainee assessment via Wikileaks

MPs Call For Release Of ‘Gitmos’
June 2011
Who Are the Remaining Prisoners in Guantánamo? Part Three: Captured Crossing from Afghanistan into Pakistan (1 of 2)
Andy Worthington, September 22, 2010
Kuwaiti Family Committee
is a site with details about the Kuwaiti detainees.

''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'', April 19, 2004
Guantanamo man tells of 'torture'
''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

'', March 3, 2006
Guantanamo interview: full transcript
''

'', March 3, 2006
Kuwait to Guantanamo Bay
''

Al-Ahram ''Al-Ahram'' ( ar, الأهرام; ''The Pyramids''), founded on 5 August 1875, is the most widely circulating Egyptian daily newspaper, and the second oldest after '' al-Waqa'i`al-Masriya'' (''The Egyptian Events'', founded 1828). It is majori ...

'', February 27, 2005
Guantanamo man 'wants to starve'
''

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

'', October 26, 2005 {{DEFAULTSORT:Odah, Fouzi Khalid Abdullah Detainees of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp 1977 births Living people People from Kuwait City Kuwaiti expatriates in Pakistan