Abdullah Mujahid

Abdullah Mujahid (born 1971) is a citizen of Afghanistan who is still held in extrajudicial detention after being transferred from United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba — to an Afghan prison.

His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 1100.

According to the Associated Press, the allegations against Mujahid, in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal, state Mujahid was head of security for the city of Gardez and for Paktia province.

Mujahid's lawyers acknowledge that he fought with Harakat-e-Mulavi, against some of Afghanistan's foreign occupiers—during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, during the 1980s.

He was accused of ties to al-Qaeda and of attacking U.S. forces, and was arrested in July 2003.

Mujahid claimed he was loyal to the coalition.

Abdullah Mujahid is militia leader from Afghanistan's Tajik ethnic group, who rose up against the Taliban in the closing days of its administration of Afghanistan.

The Afghanistan Transitional Authority rewarded Mujahid, and other militia leaders who had risen up against the Taliban, with the control of security forces.

Both Mujahid and Pacha Khan Zadran, a Pashtun from the Zadran tribe, were rewarded with security appointments in Paktia province.

Mujahid and Zadran struggled to consolidate greater shares of control over Paktia's security forces.

Mujahid and Zadran's forces were reported to have engaged in gun battles during their disputes.

Both men's forces were accused of abusing their authority and routinely robbing civilians at their roadblocks.

By 2003, both men were regarded as renegades and enemies by US forces.

A high-level delegation from Kabul visited Mujahid, and offered him a nominally more senior position in Kabul as a "Highway Commander".

Mujahid accepted this offer, and yielded up his position as Chief of Police of Gardez, and traveled to Kabul.

However, the promised promotion never materialized.

When Mujahid returned hom to Gardez, he was sent to Guantanamo.

Zadran's nephew, and Lieutenant, Jan Baz, was also apprehended and sent to Bagram Theater detention facility.

But Zadran remained at large, and now represents Paktia in the Afghan Parliament.

Mujahid faced a number of allegations during his Combatant Status Review Tribunal and Administrative Review Board hearings: notably that he was fired for corruption and collusion with the opposition, that he was a senior commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani militant group based in Kashmir.

He was also accused of currently being a member of Harakat-e-Mulavi, a group which American intelligence analysts believe is now allied with the rebels.

Mujahid's lawyers assert that the Lashkar-e-Taiba connection is a case of mistaken identity.

From July 2004 through March 2005, CSRTs were convened to determine whether each prisoner had been correctly classified as an "enemy combatant".

was among the 60% of prisoners who chose to participate in tribunal hearings.

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for the tribunal of each detainee, listing the allegations that supported their detention as an "enemy combatant".

's memo accused him of the following:

Mujahid requested eight witnesses:

The Tribunal's President decided to allow three of the other Guantanamo detainees as witnesses.

However, he informed Mujahid that they would not be allowed to testify, in person, for "Force Protection reasons".

He then informed Mujahid that American officials had not been able to secure the cooperation of the Afghan government in locating the witnesses back in Afghanistan.

A senior commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, also named Abdullah Mujahid, was killed in 2006.

All of the allegations against Mujahid have been dropped in early 2007, and he was cleared for release.

However, as of August 2007, he still remains in Guantanamo.

The Bush administration asserted that:

the protections of the Geneva Conventions did not extend to captured prisoners who are not members of the regular Afghan armed force nor meet the criteria for prisoner of war for voluntary forces.

Critics argued the Conventions obliged the U.S. to conduct competent tribunals to determine the status of prisoners.

Subsequently, the U.S. Department of Defense instituted Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRTs), to determine whether detainees met the new definition of an "enemy combatant".

"Enemy combatant" was defined by the U.S. Department of Defense as:

"an individual who was part of, or supporting, the Taliban, or al-Qaeda forces, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners. This includes any person who commits a belligerent act or has directly supported hostilities in aid of enemy armed forces."

The CSRTs are not bound by the rules of evidence that would normally apply in civilian court, and the government’s evidence is presumed to be “genuine and accurate.”