Yussef Mohammed Mubarak al-Shihri (1985–2009) was a citizen of
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
who was held in
extrajudicial detention
Administrative detention is arrest and detention of individuals by the state without trial. A number of jurisdictions claim that it is done for security reasons. Many countries claim to use administrative detention as a means to combat terrorism ...
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 territori ...
's
Guantanamo Bay detention 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 ...
.
[
]
He was born on September 8, 1985, in
Riyadh
Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of th ...
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
.
At the age of sixteen, he was captured along with his older cousin as part of a large group of 120 soldiers near
Kunduz
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, other_name =
, settlement_type = City
, image_skyline = Kunduz River valley.jpg
, imagesize = 300
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, image_caption =
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, and transferred to Shiberghan prison for six weeks, before being flown to Guantanamo on January 16, 2002.
[ Amnesty International]
Youth among first detainees at Guantanamo
, February 23, 2007
On June 15, 2005,
human rights
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
lawyer
Clive Stafford Smith identified al-Shihri as one of a dozen teenage boys held in the adult portion of the prison.
According to Smith, al-Shihri was 13 years old when captured.
Smith observed that official US documents referred to this dozen minors solely by their initials, because US law prohibits identifying minors. Official documents referred to Al Shihri as "YAS".
An October 2009 article in the ''
Saudi Gazette
Saudi Gazette is an English-language daily newspaper launched in 1976 and published in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It is only available online, as the print version was discontinued in 2019. It is the second English-language daily newspaper in Saud ...
'' asserts his older brother
Saad Muhammad Al-Shehri took him to Afghanistan after he finished "
intermediate school
A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school. ...
".
[
]
Yussef Al-Shehri passed through the
Saudi militant rehabilitation program following his repatriation from Guantanamo. He was named on
Saudi Arabia's list of most wanted terrorist suspects on February 3, 2009. He was killed in a shootout with Saudi police, while apparently preparing to commit a suicide attack wearing an explosive belt on October 18, 2009.
Combatant Status Review
A
Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for the tribunal, listing the allegations that led to his detainment. His memo accused him of the following:
[
]
Administrative Review Board
Detainees whose
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 estab ...
labeled them "enemy combatants" were scheduled for annual
Administrative Review Board
The Administrative Review Board is a United States military body that conducts an annual review of the detainees held by the United States in Camp Delta in the United States Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The purpose of the Board is to re ...
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.
[
]
Second annual Administrative Review Board
A
Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for
Yusef M Modaray's
second annual
Administrative Review Board,
on October 12, 2006.
[
]
The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention.
Repatriation
On November 25, 2008, the Department of Defense published a list of when captives left Guantanamo.
[
]
According to that list he was repatriated to Saudi custody on November 9, 2007, with thirteen other men.
The records published from the captives' annual Administrative Reviews show his repatriation was not the outcome of the formal internal review procedures.
[
][
][
]
The records show his detention was not reviewed in 2007.
At least ten other men in his release group were not repatriated through the formal review procedure.
[
Peter Taylor writing for the ]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 broad ...
called the Saudis repatriated on November 9, 2007, with al-Shihri, ''" batch 10"''.[
]
He wrote that the ''BBC's'' research had found this batch to be a problematic cohort, and that four other men from this batch were named on the Saudi most wanted list.
Allegations of family connections with other suspected terrorists
After another former Saudi captive, Sa'id Ali Jabir Al Khathim Al Shihri, appeared in internet videos that threatened further attacks, an article in the ''Saudi Gazette
Saudi Gazette is an English-language daily newspaper launched in 1976 and published in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It is only available online, as the print version was discontinued in 2019. It is the second English-language daily newspaper in Saud ...
'' reported that he had a brother-in-law, named "Yusuf al-Shihri", who was also a former Guantanamo captive.[
]
Said Ali Al Shihri married Yussef Al Shiri's sister after their repatriation from Guantanamo.[
]
Yussef's sister had two previous husbands. In a child custody dispute her first husband sought custody claiming the sister was a takfiri
''Takfiri'' ( ar, تَكْفِيرِيّ, ' lit. "excommunicational") is an Arabic and Islamic term denoting a Muslim who excommunicates one of his/her coreligionists, i.e. who accuses another Muslim of being an apostate. Since according to t ...
. He claimed her second husband had also been a militant, and that he was killed in a shootout with security officials in 2004.
During his CSR Tribunal, the allegations stated Yussef Mohammed Mubarak al-Shihri was captured with his cousin, in Kunduz
, native_name_lang = prs
, other_name =
, settlement_type = City
, image_skyline = Kunduz River valley.jpg
, imagesize = 300
, image_alt =
, image_caption =
, image_ ...
, in northern Afghanistan.[
After his death, the ''Saudi Gazette'' reported that two of his brothers, Faisal and ]Mustafa
Mustafa ( ar, مصطفى
, Muṣṭafā) is one of the names of Prophet Muhammad, and the name means "chosen, selected, appointed, preferred", used as an Arabic given name and surname. Mustafa is a common name in the Muslim world.
Given name Mou ...
, and a cousin, Abdul Ghani Al-Shehri were imprisoned in at the Hai’er Prison on suspicion of terrorism.[
]
Named on Saudi Arabia's most wanted list
Yusuf al-Shihri, his brother-in-law Said al-Shihri, and a sixteen-year-old cousin, Abdullah al-Shihri, were named on a Saudi most wanted list on February 3, 2009.[
]
Reported the death of Fahd Al Jutayli
The ''Yemen Post Yemen Postal Authority is the national postal authority of Yemen. It has the sole privilege of providing domestic and international postal services such as
letter post, parcel post, money orders, savings bank, EMS, fax, philately etc. Ministry o ...
'' reported on September 27 that Othman Al-Ghamedi and Yousuf al-Shahri had
contacted their families requesting that they pass on news to the family of Fahd Saleh Sulaiman Al-Jatili that he had died during a military action by Yemeni security officials.[
]
Killed
Al Shihri, Raed al-Harbi, and a third man were killed at a border crossing while trying to enter Saudi Arabia from Yemen.[
][
][
][
]
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. ne ...
reports the men were in possession of suicide belts when discovered.
Al Shihri and al-Harbi were disguised in women's clothes when discovered.
The three resisted arrest and one Saudi soldier was killed and another wounded.
The third man, who was not in disguise, survived the firefight. His interrogation led to the capture of six Yemeni accomplices.
Saudi security officials reported on the arrest of 113 suspects in March 2010.[
]
The arrest of 101 of those individuals were reported to have started with the interrogation of al-Shiri's surviving companion.
See also
* Minors detained in the War on Terror
* Al Joudi v. Bush
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shihri, Yussef Mohammed Mubarak Al-
2009 deaths
1985 births
Saudi Arabian Muslims
Saudi Arabian extrajudicial prisoners of the United States
Guantanamo detainees known to have been released
Juveniles held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp
Named on Saudi Arabia's list of most wanted suspected terrorists