Mohammed Nechle (born 2 April 1968) is a

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and He ...

n citizen who was wrongly held for almost seven years as an " enemy combatant" 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 detention 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 ...

. Nechle was born in

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

and immigrated to Bosnia in the 1990s. Nechle became a Bosnian citizen, and married a Bosnian woman. Nechle was working for the Red Crescent at the time of

al Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countr ...

attacks of September 11, 2001. He won his

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 ...

and

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 ...

Richard J. Leon Richard J. Leon (born December 3, 1949) is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Early life and education Leon was born in South Natick, Massachusetts, in 1949. He is the son of ...

wrote that there was no evidence that Nechle intended to travel to Afghanistan to take up arms against US forces. Judge Leon declared Nechle's detention as unlawful and ordered his release in November 2008. He was released from Guantanamo and returned to his family in Bosnia on 16 December 2008.

Arrest and trial by Bosnian authorities

Nechle and five other Bosnians of Algerian extraction fell under the suspicion of local US intelligence authorities. The Americans believed these six men, all charity workers, were merely using their charity works as a cover for a plot to bomb the US embassy in Sarajevo. The six were arrested, charged, tried, and acquitted by the Bosnian legal authorities.

Extrajudicial capture and transportation by US authorities

When they were released by the Bosnians, following their acquittal, they were apprehended by a combined force of Americans and Bosnians. They weren't charged. They were transported to Guantanamo Bay, where all six remained for four years.

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of 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 ...

to detainees 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 detainees are, or are not, entitled to the protections of

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

status. Subsequently, 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 ...

instituted the

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 ...

s. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the detainees were ''lawful combatants''—rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the detainee had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant. Nechle chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. 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 ...

acquired the unclassified portions of the dossiers of one tenth of the Guantanamo Bay detainees. Nechle's dossier is available there.documents (.pdf)
from Mohammed Nechle's ''

Allegations

Nechle's unclassified dossier is 54 pages long. The " Summary of Evidence" memo within his dossier contains the following allegations:Allegations from the "Summary of Evidence" (.pdf)
from Mohammed Nechle's ''

'' - page 32 - 23 September 2004

Administrative Review Board

Detainees whose

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. Nechle chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing. Summarized transcript (.pdf) from Mohammed Nechle's '' Administrative Review Board hearing'' - page 83

Release

On 16 December 2008, Mustafa Idr, Boudella al Hajj and Mohammed Nechle were released to Bosnia. On 3 March 2009, '' El Khabar'' reported that the Bush administration forced Idr and the other two men to sign undertakings that they would not sue the US government for their kidnapping, before they would be released.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nechle, Mohammed Algerian emigrants to Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Living people 1968 births Guantanamo detainees known to have been released People subject to extraordinary rendition by the United States People from Laghouat Combatant Status Review Tribunals Bosnia and Herzegovina people of Algerian descent