Saad Madi Saad al Azmi (born May 29, 1979) 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. He was held in

extrajudicial Extrajudicial punishment is a punishment for an alleged crime or offense which is carried out without legal process or supervision by a court or tribunal through a legal proceeding. Politically motivated Extrajudicial punishment is often a fe ...

detention 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 ...

Guantánamo 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 ...

, and later repatriated on November 4, 2005.

Joint Task Force Guantanamo Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) is a U.S. military joint task force based at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba on the southeastern end of the base. JTF-GTMO falls under US Southern Command. Since January 2002 the command has ...

counter-terrorism Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, business, and intelligence agencies use to combat or el ...

analysts report that al-Azmi was born on May 29, 1979, in

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the coun ...

, Kuwait.

Repatriation

Al-Azmi and four other men were repatriated on November 4, 2005. The five stood trial in a Kuwaiti court, and were acquitted. 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 that the two main charges were that the detainees had helped fund

Al Wafa Al Wafa is an Islamic charity listed in Executive Order 13224 as an entity that supports terrorism. United States intelligence officials state that it was founded in Afghanistan by Adil Zamil Abdull Mohssin Al Zamil, Abdul Aziz al-Matrafi and ...

, an Afghan charity with ties to al-Qaeda, and that they had fought alongside the Taliban. Further, the prosecution argued that the detainees actions had endangered Kuwait's political standing and its relations with friendly nations. The detainees' defense had argued that testimony secured in Guantanamo could not be used in Kuwaiti courts, because the detainees and interrogators hadn't signed them. Further, they had argued, the allegations the USA had directed at them weren't violations of Kuwaiti law.

McClatchy interview

On June 15, 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 Saad Madi al Azmi.
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McClatchy reported remarked that the account of himself he told was at odds with that he offered during his CSR Tribunal. He told McClatchy reporters that he had never been to Afghanistan, and that he was captured in his hotel room in Pakistan by Pakistani police in August 2001. He said he was captured with

Adel al Zamel Adel al Zamel (عادل عبد المحسن الزميل) is a citizen of Kuwait who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts repor ...

, who the McClatchy reporters noted was captured in Peshawar in January 2002. He said he had traveled to Pakistan to import honey. When he was arrested his visa had expired. He thought he would soon be released over what was a minor indiscretion, but a Pakistani police officer demanded a bribe first, which he declined, resulting in a longer detention, which, unfortunately, overlapped al Qaeda's attacks on

September 11, 2001 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...

, making it economically worthwhile for the Pakistani police to turn him over the Americans. Al Azmi told reporters he was beaten in both

Kandahar detention facility Kandahar Central Jail, also known as Sarpuza Prison or Sarposa Prison, is a minimum security prison in Kandahar, Afghanistan. It has been historically used for the incarceration of common criminals of Kandahar Province. In the last two decades, the ...

and the

Bagram Theater Internment Facility The Parwan Detention Facility (also called Detention Facility in Parwan or Bagram prison) is Afghanistan's main military prison. Situated next to the Bagram Air Base in the Parwan Province of Afghanistan, the prison was built by the U.S. during t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Azmi, Saad Madi Saad Al Guantanamo detainees known to have been released Kuwaiti extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Living people Bagram Theater Internment Facility detainees 1979 births

Repatriation

McClatchy interview

See also

References