Mustafa Ait Idir (sometimes written as Ait Idr) is an individual 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 camps, 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 ...

. Ait Idir was born in

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

, but moved to

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 ...

, married a Bosnian woman, and became a Bosnian citizen. Idir was arrested on October 18, 2001, on suspicion of participating in a conspiracy to bomb the United States Embassy. After their release following their acquittal, the six men were captured on January 17, 2002, by American forces, who transferred them to Guantanamo Bay. Ait Idr has alleged brutal treatment there. He claims that guards beat him when he was shackled, and bent back his fingers, breaking them. During another alleged beating, guards threw him onto a gravel path, where one guard jumped on him, with his full weight, causing a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

that left part of his face paralyzed. On December 16, 2008, Ait Idir was one of three prisoners released to Bosnia after he was found innocent.

Combatant Status Review

Ait Idir was among the 60% of prisoners who participated in the tribunal hearings. A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for the tribunal of each detainee. The memo accused him of the following:documents (.pdf)
from Mustafa Ait Idr's ''Combatant Status Review Tribunal'' - 53 pagesSummary of Evidence (.pdf)
from Mustafa Ait Idr'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 ...

'' - page 42 of 53

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

-based Judge

Joyce Hens Green Joyce Hens Green (born November 13, 1928) is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Green was nominated by President Jimmy Carter on March 6, 1979, to a seat vacated by Howard F. C ...

extensively quoted a transcript from Idir's

when she decided that the Guantanamo tribunals violated the US Constitution.

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. Ait Idir participated in his Administrative Review Board hearing. Summarized transcript (.pdf) from Mustafa Ait Idr's '' Administrative Review Board hearing'' - page 208

Suing the US Government

The 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 ...

'' reported on April 14, 2005, that Idir's lawyers initiated legal steps to sue the U.S. government to get the videotapes of the incidents with the Initial Reaction Force where he was injured. The IRF is supposed to videotape all of its interventions.

Thomas P. Sullivan's testimony before the US Senate Judiciary Committee

Thomas P. Sullivan is a lawyer who volunteered to serve as a ''

pro bono ( en, 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. In the United States, the term typically refers to provision of legal services by legal professionals for pe ...

'' attorney for several Guantanamo captives. On September 26, 2006, he testified before the

United States Senate Judiciary Committee The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ), consider executive and judicial nominations, a ...

, expressing his concerns about the bill that was to become the Military Commissions Act. Sullivan's testimony quoted a long passage from Idr's Combatant Status Review Tribunal. : Sullivan also reminded the Judiciary Committee that US District Court Judge

, who had been appointed to oversee the Guantanamo habeas cases following the Supreme Court's decision in Rasul, cited Mr. Idir's hearing as an example of the fundamental unfairness of the CSRT process. See 355 F. Supp. 2d 443 (D.D.C. 2005)."

Release

On December 16, 2008, Mustafa Idir, Boudella al Hajj and Mohammed Nechle were released to Bosnia. According to ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...

'', Idir told the ''

Dnevni Avaz ''Dnevni avaz'' (; English: Daily Voice) is the most influential and best-selling daily newspaper in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is published in Sarajevo. Their web portal Avaz.ba is the third most visited website in Bosnia and Herzegovina, afte ...

'': : On March 3, 2009, '' El Khabar'' reported that the Bush administration forced Idir 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

Who are the Guantanamo detainees, Mustafa Ait Idir and five others
''

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 ...

''
Algerians, freed from Guantanamo, still paying the price

McClatchyDC The McClatchy Company, commonly referred to as simply McClatchy, is an American publishing company incorporated under Delaware's General Corporation Law and based in Sacramento, California. It operates 29 daily newspapers in fourteen states an ...

Report on Torture, Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment of Prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. (Ait Idir)

UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas
Habeas Works: Federal Courts’ Proven Capacity to Handle Guantánamo Cases
from Human Rights First (June 2010) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ait Idir, Mustafa Algerian emigrants to Bosnia and Herzegovina Algerian extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Bosnia and Herzegovina extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Living people Guantanamo detainees known to have been released 1970 births People from Algiers People subject to extraordinary rendition by the United States Combatant Status Review Tribunals Bosnia and Herzegovina people of Algerian descent