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Richard Dean Belmar is a British man (born 31 October 1979, in London, England) who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.[1] He was first detained in Pakistan in 2002 and sent to Bagram Theater Internment Facility, then Guantanamo. He was not charged, and was returned to the United Kingdom on 25 January 2005.[2]

Personal life[]

Belmar was born and brought up in Marylebone, London. He has a sister and an older brother. His father is Catholic, and he attended St George's Roman Catholic Secondary School. He trained as a mechanic and worked for the Post Office. He converted to Islam in 1999, after his elder brother.

He spent some time in Pakistan, and says he travelled to Afghanistan to study at a religious school in July 2001.[3][4]

Detention[]

In a letter he wrote to his family 10 days after the September 11 attacks, Belmar described living under a regime of "bad food" and intense physical training.[5] Belmar says he was in Kandahar, and tried to leave Afghanistan five times, once disguising himself in a burqa. He says he walked across the mountains, reaching Pakistan in December 2001. He returned to Karachi, and says he did not contact the British Consulate as he thought that anyone who had been in Afghanistan was at risk of arrest.[4]

US officials said Belmar was captured at an al Qaeda safe house in Pakistan in February 2002.[6] His family was told in October 2002 that he had been taken into custody due to an expired visa, and in December 2002 they were told he had been transferred to Guantánamo Bay.[7]

In Pakistan, an FBI/CIA team investigating the murder of Daniel Pearl interrogated Belmar. A senior US official told The Observer that he recommended Belmar be released back to the UK, but MI5 officers who interviewed Belmar in Karachi decided against recruiting him, so he was sent instead to Bagram. En route to Bagram, Belmar says he was struck on the back of the head, leaving a dent. He was held and interrogated at Bagram for more than six months, then sent to Guantanamo.[4]

Combatant Status Review[]

Main article: Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Belmar was among the 60% of prisoners who participated in the tribunal hearings.[8] A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for the tribunal of each detainee. The memo for his hearing lists the following:[9]

The detainee is associated with the Taliban and al Qaida forces.
  1. The detainee is a citizen of the United Kingdom who traveled to Afghanistan to flee criminal prosecution and receive military training.
  2. The detainee traveled from the United Kingdom to Kandahar, Afghanistan around July 2001, via the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan.
  3. The detainee stayed at a house in Kabul, Afghanistan and received training in the assembling and disassembling of the AK47.
  4. The detainee traveled to a terrorist training camp around 21 July 2001.
  5. The detainee received basic weapons, war tactics, and navigation training at a terrorist training camp.
  6. The detainee conducted guard duty with a Kalishnikov rifle at the front gate of a terrorist training camp.
  7. The detainee was in contact with Usama Bin Laden while at a terrorist training camp.
  8. The detainee stated he had one opportunity to fight the Northern Alliance forces in Kabul, Afghanistan.
  9. The detainee was arrested by the Pakistani local authorities on 07 February 2002.
  10. The detainee swore a bayat (oath or promise) to Usama Bin Laden.


Testimony[]

The tribunal did not allow Belmar to call any defence witnesses or see the evidence against him.[2] The Tribunal determined that Belmar had been appropriately classified as an "enemy combatant".

Release[]

Like the other nine UK citizens held at Guantanamo Bay, he was repatriated to the UK. He was flown into RAF Northolt on 25 January 2005, along with Moazzam Begg, Martin Mubanga and Feroz Abbasi, where he was arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 and briefly questioned at Paddington Green police station, before being released. The police decided that confessions given to MI5 officers were not admissible evidence.[6]

In an interview after his release, he retracted what he said during interrogation, including having heard Bin Laden speak. He claims to have been beaten and sexually humiliated during interrogations, and to have been hung in the strappado position.[4] His father has said that "They have said he was in Afghanistan in 1998 studying chemicals at the terrorists' base but I know he was in London."[3]

References[]

  1. "List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006". United States Department of Defense. http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf. Retrieved 2006-05-15. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 Guantánamo Britons return to UK [1] The Guardian 25 January 2005
  3. 3.0 3.1 At-a-glance: Guantanamo Bay Britons [2] BBC News 27 January 2005
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Beatings, sex abuse and torture: how MI5 left me to rot in US jail [3] The Observer 27 February 2005
  5. It's rubbish to say my brother is a serious threat to Britain [4] Daily Telegraph 9 March 2004
  6. 6.0 6.1 Police chief rules out prosecutions that rely on Guantanamo evidence [5] The Independent 26 January 2005
  7. Profiles: the British Guantánamo detainees [6] The Guardian 11 January 2005
  8. OARDEC, Index to Transcripts of Detainee Testimony and Documents Submitted by Detainees at Combatant Status Review Tribunals Held at Guantanamo Between July 2004 and March 2005, September 4, 2007
  9. Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Richard Dean Belmar's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 10-17

External links[]


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