Mohammed Souleimani Laalami

Mohammed Souleimani Laalami was a citizen of Morocco, who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.[1] Laalami's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 237. The Department of Defense reports he was born on March 4, 1965, in Casablanca, Morocco.

Mohammed Souleimani Laalami
Released2006
Morocco
CitizenshipMorocco
Detained at Guantanamo
ISN237
Charge(s)no charge, extrajudicial detention
StatusDied fighting in Syria

Official status reviews

Originally the Bush Presidency asserted that captives apprehended in the "war on terror" were not covered by the Geneva Conventions, and could be held indefinitely, without charge, and without an open and transparent review of the justifications for their detention.[2] In 2004 the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, that Guantanamo captives were entitled to being informed of the allegations justifying their detention, and were entitled to try to refute them.

Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants
Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a 3x5 meter trailer where the captive sat with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor.[3][4]

Following the Supreme Court's ruling the Department of Defense set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants.[2][5]

Mohammed chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[6]

Most detainee's transcripts included the allegations against the detainee—Mohammed's did not.[6]

Mohammed was confused over whether the Tribunal was a court of law, and wanted to know what crimes he was being charged with.[6]

Mohammed denied that he was recruited in Morocco.[6] Mohammed denied that he being trained at the al Farouq training camp. He claimed he made these confessions, in Afghanistan, when he was first captured, and was being beaten and threatened with death. He claimed both Afghans and Americans beat him during his interrogations in Afghanistan.

He denied being captured by the Northern Alliance in Tora Bora.[6] He denied ever being in Tora Bora. He was captured in a village near Jalalabad. He denied possessing any weapons.

Mohammed traveled to Afghanistan, with his family, on a religious pilgrimage.[6] When asked if he visited holy sites in Afghanistan he explained: "Pilgrimage can mean it is for religion, but I meant when you leave a place for good it is a pilgrimage."

Formerly secret Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment

On April 25, 2011, whistleblower organization WikiLeaks published formerly secret assessments drafted by Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts.[7][8] His 2-page Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment was drafted on December 27, 2003.[9] It was signed by camp commandant Major General Geoffrey D. Miller. He recommended continued detention.

Moroccan conviction

On November 10, 2006, Laalami and two other Moroccans said to be former Guantanamo detainees, were sentenced by a Moroccan court.[10][11][12] Laalami, was sentenced for a five-year term, for starting a "criminal group". The other two Moroccans, named Najib Mohammad Lahassimi and Mohammed Ouali, were sentenced to three years for falsifying documents.

Death fighting in Syria

Carol Rosenberg of the Miami Herald was the first to report that Laalami was the first former Guantanamo captive known to have died fighting in Syria.[13][14][15][16] He was with Harakat Sham al-Islam, a faction not affiliated with al Qaeda or ISIS.

References
  1. OARDEC (2006-05-15). "List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
  2. "U.S. military reviews 'enemy combatant' use". USA Today. 2007-10-11. Archived from the original on 2007-10-23. Critics called it an overdue acknowledgment that the so-called Combatant Status Review Tribunals are unfairly geared toward labeling detainees the enemy, even when they pose little danger. Simply redoing the tribunals won't fix the problem, they said, because the system still allows coerced evidence and denies detainees legal representation.
  3. Neil A. Lewis (2004-11-11). "Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court". New York Times. Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Archived from the original on 2009-04-23. Retrieved 2017-02-21.
  4. Mark Huband (2004-12-11). "Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals"". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 2016-03-09. Retrieved 2017-02-21.
  5. "Q&A: What next for Guantanamo prisoners?". BBC News. 2002-01-21. Archived from the original on 23 November 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-24.
  6. "Summarized Detainee Statement Under Affirmation" (PDF). OARDEC. 2004. pp. 72–74. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2006-03-16. Retrieved 2017-02-28.
  7. Christopher Hope, Robert Winnett, Holly Watt, Heidi Blake (2011-04-27). "WikiLeaks: Guantanamo Bay terrorist secrets revealed -- Guantanamo Bay has been used to incarcerate dozens of terrorists who have admitted plotting terrifying attacks against the West – while imprisoning more than 150 totally innocent people, top-secret files disclose". The Telegraph (UK). Archived from the original on 2012-07-15. Retrieved 2012-07-13. The Daily Telegraph, along with other newspapers including The Washington Post, today exposes America's own analysis of almost ten years of controversial interrogations on the world's most dangerous terrorists. This newspaper has been shown thousands of pages of top-secret files obtained by the WikiLeaks website.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. "WikiLeaks: The Guantánamo files database". The Telegraph (UK). 2011-04-27. Archived from the original on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2012-07-10.
  9. "Mohamad Souleimani Laalmai: Guantanamo Bay detainee file on Mohamad Souleimani Laalmai, US9MO-000237DP, passed to the Telegraph by Wikileaks". The Telegraph (UK). 2011-04-27. Retrieved 2016-07-09.
  10. "Morocco sentences three former Guantanamo detainees". The Jurist. 2006-11-12. Archived from the original on 2009-05-09. Retrieved 2017-02-17. Mohamed Slimani was sentenced to five years in prison for his alleged role in creating and participation in a "criminal gang, practice of activities in a non-recognized association and organization of un-authorized public meetings." Najib Houssani and Mohamed Ouali each received three year sentences for falsifying administrative documents.
  11. Mohamed Moustaid (2006-11-11). "Morocco Jails 3 Ex-Guantanamo Detainees". Rabat, Morocco: Associated Press. Archived from the original on 2006-12-03. Retrieved 2017-02-17. The criminal court in Sale, near the capital, Rabat, sentenced Mohamed Souleymani Laalami to five years in prison for creating a criminal group, the MAP news agency reported late Friday.
  12. "Rabat jails ex-Guantanamo detainees". Al Jazeera. 2006-11-11. Archived from the original on 2017-02-18. The criminal court in Sale, located near the capital, Rabat, handed the heaviest sentence of five years in prison to Mohamed Souleymani Laalami, who was accused of forming a criminal group, the MAP news agency reported late on Friday.
  13. Carol Rosenberg (2013-09-17). "Ex-Guantánamo detainee dies fighting Assad in Syria". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on 2015-03-10. Retrieved 2017-02-17. It shows the body of a fallen fighter in his 30s or 40s and a rebel leader, Sheik Abu Ahmad al Muhajir, eulogizing the man as Mohammed al Alami, a Northwest African veteran of the jihad in Afghanistan "who went through hardship for the sake of God in the prison of the Americans in Guantánamo for five years."
  14. "Ex-Guantanamo prisoner killed in Syria". Al Jazeera. 2013-09-18. Archived from the original on 2016-11-06. Retrieved 2017-02-17. Moroccan-born Mohammed al Alami, who was released in 2006, is the first former Guantanamo detainee to die in battle in the Syrian civil war, analysts say.
  15. Zenon Evans (2013-09-18). "Syrian Civil War Fighters Include Ex-Guantanamo Detainees, Video Shows". Reason magazine. Archived from the original on 2015-07-17. Retrieved 2017-02-27. The video shows the funeral of a Moroccan man identified as Abu Hamza al-Maghrebi. According to the Miami Herald, when he was detained at Guantanamo, he was known as Mohammed al-'Alami.
  16. David Adams (2013-09-13). "Former Guantanamo prisoner killed in Syria after joining Islamist brigade". Reuters. Retrieved 2017-02-28. The video, first reported by The Miami Herald, was posted by Harakat Sham al-Islam, one of the Islamist brigades fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. It showed the August 5 funeral in which Alami is praised by a rebel leader for enduring "the prison of the Americans in Guantanamo for five years ... where he did not reform or change."
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