Ruhal Ahmed (also spelled Rhuhel Ahmed) (born 3 November 1981) is a British citizen who was detained without trial for over two years by the

United States government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...

, beginning in

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 ...

in 2001, and then in the

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 ...

. His

Internment Serial Number An Internment Serial Number (ISN) is an identification number assigned to captives who come under control of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) during armed conflicts. History On March 3, 2006, in compliance with a court order from D ...

was 110. Ahmed was returned to the United Kingdom in March 2004, where he was released the next day without charges. He was one of three British men, friends from

Tipton Tipton is an industrial town in the West Midlands in England with a population of around 38,777 at the 2011 UK Census. It is located northwest of Birmingham. Tipton was once one of the most heavily industrialised towns in the Black Country, w ...

, United Kingdom, who had been detained. They became known as the

Tipton Three The Tipton Three is the collective name given to three British citizens from Tipton, England who were held in extrajudicial detention by the United States government for two years in Guantanamo Bay detainment camp in Cuba. Ruhal Ahmed was born on ...

. In August 2004, Ahmed,

Shafiq Rasul Shafiq Rasul (born 15 April 1977) is a British citizen who was a detainee held at Guantanamo Bay by the United States, which treated him an unlawful combatant. His detainee ID number was 86. His family discovered his detention when the British ...

and Asif Iqbal compiled and released a report on their abuses while in US custody. In ''

Rasul v. Rumsfeld Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal, Ruhal Ahmed, and Jamal Al-Harith, four former Guantánamo Bay detainees, filed suit in 2004 in the United States District Court in Washington, DC against former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. They charged that i ...

,'' the Tipton Three and Jamal Udeen Al-Harith, four former Guantánamo Bay internees, sued former

US Secretary of Defense The United States secretary of defense (SecDef) is the head of the United States Department of Defense, the executive department of the U.S. Armed Forces, and is a high ranking member of the federal cabinet. DoDD 5100.1: Enclosure 2: a The s ...

Donald Rumsfeld Donald Henry Rumsfeld (July 9, 1932 – June 29, 2021) was an American politician, government official and businessman who served as Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under president Gerald Ford, and again from 2001 to 2006 under Presi ...

. They charge that illegal

interrogation Interrogation (also called questioning) is interviewing as commonly employed by law enforcement officers, military personnel, intelligence agencies, organized crime syndicates, and terrorist organizations with the goal of eliciting useful informa ...

tactics were permitted to be used against them by Rumsfeld and the

US military The United States Armed Forces are the Military, military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six Military branch, service branches: the United States Army, Army, United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps, United States N ...

chain of command A command hierarchy is a group of people who carry out orders based on others' authority within the group. It can be viewed as part of a power structure, in which it is usually seen as the most vulnerable and also the most powerful part. Milit ...

. The 2006

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

, ''

The Road to Guantánamo ''The Road to Guantánamo'', alternatively ''The Road to Guantanamo'', is a British 2006 docudrama film written and directed by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross about the incarceration of three British citizens (the 'Tipton Three'), who w ...

,'' is a

docu-drama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television show, television and feature film, film, which features Drama (film and television), dramatized Historical reenactment, re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of docum ...

Michael Winterbottom Michael Winterbottom (born 29 March 1961) is an English film director. He began his career working in British television before moving into features. Three of his films—''Welcome to Sarajevo'', '' Wonderland'' and '' 24 Hour Party People''� ...

depicting their account of their detention. Ahmed was refused a visa by

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

to travel there to promote the film.

Travel and detention

With his friends

and Asif Iqbal, Ahmed in October 2001, weeks after the

9/11 attacks 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, ...

in the United States, travelled to Pakistan for a friend's wedding. While there, they went into Afghanistan and got caught when war broke out with the US and its allies. They were captured by soldiers of the Northern Alliance and transferred to the custody of the US Army, as they had lost all their identification and luggage. They were detained there and transported to

s on US territory in Cuba, where they were severely interrogated and treated as enemy combatants.

Return to UK

They were returned to the UK in March 2004, and released the next day without charges. In August 2004, they compiled and released a report on their abuses while in US custody.

Three suicides at Guantanamo, June 2006

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 ...

'' quoted Ahmed following the US announcement of the deaths of three detainees at Guantanamo in June 2006, who were alleged to have committed suicide. He said, "There is no hope in Guantanamo. The only thing that goes through your mind day after day is how to get justice or how to kill yourself. It is the despair - not the thought of martyrdom - that consumes you there." He went on, "A Saudi detainee in the cell in front of us had had enough. We could hear him rip up his sheets and tie it to the wire mesh roof of the cell. He jumped off his sink and tried to hang himself. We shouted to the military police and they came and saved him." Last, he said, "It's weird because when we left we weren't even that religious, We were young - average British lads. Obviously if we knew what we were getting ourselves into we would have never gone." Ahmed has taken part in a campaign against torture, organized by

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 ...

McClatchy interview

On 15 June 2008, the

McClatchy News Service 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 and ...

published articles based on interviews with 66 former Guantanamo captives. McClatchy reporters interviewed Ruhal Ahmed in Britain. Ahmed said when he returned to Tipton, someone had hung an effigy clad in an orange Guantanamo overall, labelled "Tipton Taliban will die."

References

External links

Guantanamo Bay guard meets 'Tipton 3' ex-prisoners
video from the

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 ...

, 12 January 2010 * *
Composite statement: Detention in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal and Rhuhel Ahmed
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahmed, Ruhal 1981 births Living people English Muslims English people of Bangladeshi descent British extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Guantanamo detainees known to have been released People from Birmingham, West Midlands Victims of human rights abuses Articles containing video clips