Rasool Shahwali Zair Mohammed Mohammed

Rasool Shahwali Zair Mohammed Mohammed is a citizen of Afghanistan who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 835. The Department of Defense reports that he was born on June 1, 1976, in Khowst, Afghanistan.

Mohammed's older brother was also detained in Guantanamo.

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

File:Trailer where CSR Tribunals were held.jpg

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a trailer. The captive sat on a plastic garden chair, with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor. Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.

Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives 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 captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status.

Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants -- rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant.

Mohammed chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

Allegations

The allegations against Rasool Shahwali Zair Mohammed Mohammed were:

a. The detainee is associated with the Taliban.

1. The detainee traveled to Afghanistan 26 September 2001.
2. The detainee operated medical equipment at a local clinic, but no such equipment was found.
3. The detainee can fire an AK and a pistol.
4. Two rifles, a pistol, and a signal mirror were located in a center building, also referred to as the “Target Compound”.

b. The detainee participated in military operations against the United States and its coalition partners.

1. The detainee was arrested in the house into which someone entered after firing rockets at United States forces.
2. The detainee exhibited the burnt hair, gunpowder smell, and oil stains on his clothes, indicative of the recent firing of a rocket launcher.

Determined not to have been an Enemy Combatant

The Washington Post reports that both Mohammed, and his brother, were among the 38 detainees who were determined not to have been an enemy combatants during their Combatant Status Review Tribunals. They report that Naqeebyllah has been released, but that Mohammed remains in detention.

References

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