Ahmed Errachidi

Ahmed Rashidi (also known as Ahmed Errachidi) is a citizen of Morocco who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.

Rashidi's Guantanamo ISN was 590.

The Department of Defense reports that he was born on March 17, 1966, in Tangier, Morocco.

the US military has accused Ahmed Errachidi... of 'receiving training at the Al Farooq training camp in July 2001, to include weapons training, war tactics, and bomb making.' according to a summary of evidence for his initial hearing provided to the Globe by his lawyers at Reprieve, a British legal-services organization.

But Chris Chang, an investigator for Reprieve, uncovered pay stubs showing that Errachidi had been a chef in two London restaurants, the Westbury and the Archduke, in July 2001.

Chang's office provided copies of the pay stubs to the Globe.

His status was reviewed by Tribunal panel 13, on October 7, 2004.

His Personal Representative notes from the meeting where the Summary of Evidence memo was read to Rashidi stated:

Detainees whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal labeled them "enemy combatants" were scheduled for annual Administrative Review Board 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.

Documents from Rashidi's CSR Tribunal indicated he had been confirmed as an "enemy combatant", and was going to start having annual Administrative Review Board hearings.

Rashidi's lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, wrote an article in The Guardian on June 14, 2006, commenting on the American reaction to the three Guantanamo detainees who committed suicide on June 10, 2006.

Smith comments focused on what he characterized as the camp authority's leaders plans to prevent future suicides by increasing their brutality.

In particular he commented on Colonel Michael Bumgarner's announcement that he would send a five-man riot squad in to conduct a Forcible Cell Entry to forcibly strip Rashidi of his brown coveralls.

Smith said that Rashidi had already had mental and emotional problems prior to being sent to the camp.

Rashidi did not attend his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

Rashidi had a habeas corpus petition submitted on his behalf.

As a consequence a dossier of documents from his CSR Tribunal was published.

Rashishi's dossier was 19 pages long.

On July 14, 2006 The Boston Globe reported on investigations they made to test the credibility of the allegations against Guantanamo detainees.

Rashidi was one of the detainees who they profiled.

The Globe reported that Rashidi was alleged to have been attended the al Farouq training camp in Afghanistan.

According to the Globe:

However, records the Department of Defense published in September 2007 showed that no annual reviews were convened for him.

There is no record any Summary of Evidence memos were prepared for annual review boards.

Prior to his repatriation Rashidi was described as a captive who had been cleared for release.

But there is no record that an Administrative Review Board drafted a decision memos recommending his release or transfer.

Lieutenant-Colonel David Cooper, of the Office for the Administrative Review of the Detention of Enemy Combatants, wrote Rashidi's lawyers on February 22, 2007.

He wrote that Rashidi and another man, Ahmed Belbacha, had: ''"...been approved to leave Guantanamo, after diplomatic arrangements for their departure had been made."

British officials continued to decline to make efforts on behalf of the Guantanamo captives who were British residents, but not British citizens.

A close friend back in the United Kingdom, Abderrazzak Sakim, and Clive Stafford Smith, told the Islington Gazette, his local paper, that they were concerned that if he were repatriated to Morocco, he would be promptly subjected to abusive detention in a Moroccan prison.

The paper reports that Rashidi spent three years in solitary confinement, and has been subjected to beatings and pepper spraying.

The paper quotes Emily Thornberry, his local Member of Parliament:

Guantanamo Bay is an affront to international law.

While Ahmed Errachidi has been in Guantanamo he has been subject to appalling abuse and has suffered at least one severe mental breakdown.

He should never have been in Guantanamo Bay and he certainly shouldn't be there for a moment longer.

It's completely unacceptable that Ahmed should be left in limbo like this, while the international community wrings its hands about the detainees the US no longer wants.

On August 7, 2008 The Washington Post'' reported that the Guantanamo guards defied their orders to discontinue the illegal practice of arbitrarily moving captives multiples times a day to deprive them of sleep.

The report stated that Ahmed Rashidi was routinely having six-hour interrogations in the middle of the night, followed by a series of cell relocations.

Guards called this practice the "frequent flyer program".