Mohamed Jawad
Encyclopedia
Mohamed Jawad, born in Miranshah
, Pakistan
, was accused of attempted murder before a Guantanamo military commission
on charges that he threw a grenade at a passing American convoy on December 17, 2002. Jawad's family says that he was 12 years old at the time of his detention in 2002. The United States Department of Defense
maintains that a bone scan showed he was about 17 when taken into custody.
Jawad insists that he had been hired to help remove landmines from the war-torn region, and that a colleague had thrown the grenade. He has been held in extrajudicial detention
first at the Bagram Theater Internment Facility
and then at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp from 2003 until 2009. His Internment Serial Number was 900.
The military commission presiding judge ruled that Jawad's confession to throwing a grenade was inadmissible since it had been obtained through coercion after Afghan authorities threatened to kill him and his family. He was ordered released after a successful petition for a writ of habeas corpus
before Judge Ellen Huvelle
of the U.S. District Court
in Washington, D.C. on July 30, 2009. On August 24, 2009 he was transported from Guantanamo Bay to Afghanistan.
in 1991. In an English language Al Jazeera
broadcast, one of his uncles said he was born four months after the battle where his father was killed, which he said occurred in 1990.
Guantanamo spokesman Jeffrey D. Gordon
disputed the human rights workers' claims, referring to bone scans performed when Jawad arrived at Guantanamo, which he asserted established he was eighteen when he arrived at Guantanamo. A report about juveniles held at Guantanamo stated that military records show Jawad to have been either 17 or 18 at the time of his arrival.
Jawad was studying at a sixth or seventh-grade level at a school the United States later described as "Jihadi". Several years later, he was approached by four or six men at Qari Mosque in his hometown. They asked if he would be willing to take a lucrative job in Kabul, Afghanistan where recent government attention had been called to the need to remove landmines, and help clear Soviet-era mines from the region for a promised 12,000 Pakistani Rupees.
Jawad agreed, but said he would first need to secure the permission of his mother. The men told him to tell his family he had found a job across the border, but not to mention the details lest they worry about his safety. Some of his relatives tried to discourage him, saying he was too young for a job, but since his mother wasn't present, he decided to accompany the men.
jeep, driven by Sergeant first class
Michael Lyons with Sergeant first class Christopher Martin in the passenger seat and Afghan interpreter Assadullah Khan Omerk in the rear, had just finished an operation in the marketplace and was stopped in traffic, when somebody tossed a homemade grenade through the jeep's missing rear window.
Both soldiers from the 19th Special Forces
were wounded, Lyons in the eye and both feet, and puncturing an eardrum
, while Martin escaped with less serious injuries to his right knee, and the Afghan interpreter suffered only minor injuries.
Four American Humvees cordoned off the site of the attack, and Afghan police near the area arrested three men, holding Jawad and Ghulam Saki, while releasing a third suspect. A police officer said that he had seen one throw the grenade, and the other tackled by a fruit vendor as he prepared to throw a second. Jawad would later tell his tribunal that he had been handed devices he didn't recognise by the men with him, and told to put them in his pocket and wait for their return. When he went into his pocket to purchase raisins from a shopkeeper, he was asked why he had a "bomb" in his pocket - and the shopkeeper advised him to run and throw the two grenades in the river. It was while running toward the river, yelling at people to move aside because he had a bomb, that Jawad alleges he was "caught".
In an October 2009 interview Jawad asserted that his nose was broken during his first interrogation at an Afghan police station.
published heights and weights for the detainees on March 16, 2007. At the time of his capture in Afghanistan in December 2002, Jawad was weighed at 130 pounds. Jawad is one of the detainees whose inprocess date at Guantánamo is missing. His inprocess weight is recorded as 119 pounds. His inprocess height is recorded as 64 inches tall (5'4"). His weight was recorded 23 times between August 2003 and November 2006. No record of his weight was made for six months during the longest and most widespread Guantánamo hunger strike
from October 2005 through March 2006.
" program of sleep deprivation
by being forced to move to a new cell at least every 2 hours and 55 minutes. These transfers happened 112 times over two weeks. Jawad testified that during these weeks, he was subjected to blaring loud music and bright lights at all times. Military records indicated that Jawad lost 10% of his body weight over this period and told doctors he was urinating blood.
. The memo stated that Jawad was from Miran Shah, Pakistan and was recruited by six men in the local mosque to clear Russian mines in Kabul, Afghanistan. The memo stated allegations that Jawad:
Jawad had his Personal Representative read from notes from a previous interview at his CSRT hearing. Jawad added verbal testimony for clarification.
.
It listed several factors favoring continued detention, including that Jawad:
The ARB memo repeated claims about training from the CSRT memo, summarized Jawad's statements from his interrogation in Afghanistan immediately after the attack, and registered Jawad's contention that although he was at the scene of the attack, he did not throw the grenade and that he never received any military or terrorist training. There is no transcript listed in Department of Defense records.
Jawad was charged before a Guantanamo military commission
of attempted murder for allegedly throwing a grenade into a U.S. military vehicle in Kabul, Afghanistan on December 17, 2002. He was the fourth detainee to face charges under the Military Commissions Act of 2006
.
On October 17, 2007, Jawad was charged with three counts of attempted murder in violation of the law of war and three counts of intentionally causing bodily injury in violation of the law of war.
Jawad refused to appear at his arraignment in March 2008, but was forcibly removed from his cell and brought to the commission hearing room. He appeared without incident at the next hearing in May.
Jawad's defense attorney, Major David Frakt, filed motions seeking the dismissal of charges based on the fact that Jawad was captured as a teenager, treated brutally in U.S. custody and wasn't a member of a terrorist organization.
Another motion complained of the involvement by the legal advisor to the commissions, Brigadier General Thomas W. Hartmann
, who had been suspended from participating in another tribunal following similar complaints. On August 14, 2008, judge Colonel Stephen Henley barred Hartmann from future participation in Jawad's case.
Jawad's military prosecutor, Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, resigned from the Office of Military Commissions
in September 2008.
Vandeveld filed a four-page declaration with the court that stated "potentially exculpatory evidence has not been provided" to the defense.
The evidence included the possibility that Jawad may have been drugged prior to the attack and that the Afghan Interior Ministry said two other men had confessed to throwing the grenade into the U.S. military jeep in Afghanistan. Vandeveld later testified to the same effect in court.
In October 2008, judge Col. Henley determined that both confessions Jawad made to Afghan and U.S. officials on December 17, 2002 were inadmissible due to being obtained as a result of torture, because Afghan policemen threatened to kill him and his family unless he confessed.
Col. Henley ruled the confession in U.S. custody was also inadmissible because of the earlier torture in addition to the fact that the U.S. interrogator blindfolded and hooded Jawad in order to maintain his fearful state.
Maj. Frakt filed a motion on July 28, 2009 with Jawad's military commission asking for dismissal following US District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle
's ruling he was a noncombatant.
petition.
On July 17, 2009 Judge Huvelle ruled that the Jawad's confessions were coerced, and thus inadmissible.
She gave the Department of Justice
a deadline of July 24, 2009 to produce another justification for holding Jawad as an enemy combatant.
On July 24 the Department of Justice acknowledged it lacked the evidence necessary to justify holding Jawad as an enemy combatant.
According to Reuters
the Department of Defensee announced it was "taking steps to house" Jawad at an "appropriate facility" in Guantanamo.
United States Attorney General
Eric Holder
has said that he has ordered a new criminal investigation.
The Justice Department said the new investigation is examining videotapes of eyewitness testimony that was not previously available.
The new investigation could result in new criminal charges in a civilian court on US soil.
On July 28, 2009 Judge Huvelle gave the Department of Justice 24 hours to justify continuing to hold him so it could conduct an "expedited criminal investigation, scheduling a hearing for July 30, 2009.
On 29 July 2009 BBC News reported that he would be released because "there was no military case for Mr Jawad's continued detention."
Carol Rosenberg
, writing in the Miami Herald, reported on July 28, 2009 that Jawad has been transferred to Camp Iguana
.
David Frakt told Rosenberg that one of his co-counsels had recently visited Jawad in Camp Iguana. "He's adjusting to his new environment, learning to play the Wii
and getting caught up on Afghan cricket and soccer scores. He's pleased but bewildered by the legal developments. Yet again he's won, but he's still there."
, writing in the Miami Herald, reports that Jawad was repatriated on August 24, 2009.
Jawad was first sent to the Pul-e-Charkhi prison
, a former Soviet facility, where the United States built an American wing in 2007.
Major
Eric Montalvo
, a former Defense counsel, said that Jawad was scheduled to meet with President Hamid Karzai
, and would then be released into the custody of an uncle, Hajji
Gul Naik.
Montalvo who had flown to Afghanistan at his own expense because the Department of Defense would not authorize him to help aid Jawad arrival, said: "It's still not over until he can walk free, but he is almost there. I don't trust anything until I see him in his house with his family."
An article published in The National
on October 15, 2009 contained quotes from Jawad in Afghanistan:
Miranshah
Miranshah is the capital or headquarters of North Waziristan in Pakistan. It is the site of a town, which has s small airfield that was built by the British for World War II. The area in which Miranshah sits is extremely dangerous mainly due to Taliban activities and U.S. Drone...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, was accused of attempted murder before a Guantanamo military commission
Guantanamo military commission
The Guantanamo military commissions are military tribunals created by the Military Commissions Act of 2006 for prosecuting detainees held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps.- History :...
on charges that he threw a grenade at a passing American convoy on December 17, 2002. Jawad's family says that he was 12 years old at the time of his detention in 2002. The United States Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
maintains that a bone scan showed he was about 17 when taken into custody.
Jawad insists that he had been hired to help remove landmines from the war-torn region, and that a colleague had thrown the grenade. He has been held in extrajudicial detention
Extrajudicial detention
Arbitrary or extrajudicial detention is the detention of individuals by a state, without ever laying formal charges against them.Although it has a long history of legitimate use in wartime , detention without charge, sometimes in secret, has been one of the hallmarks of totalitarian states...
first at the Bagram Theater Internment Facility
Bagram Theater Internment Facility
The Parwan Detention Facility , also called the Bagram Theater Internment Facility, is a United States-run prison located next to Bagram Airfield in the Parwan Province of Afghanistan.It was formerly known as the Bagram Collection Point...
and then at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp from 2003 until 2009. His Internment Serial Number was 900.
The military commission presiding judge ruled that Jawad's confession to throwing a grenade was inadmissible since it had been obtained through coercion after Afghan authorities threatened to kill him and his family. He was ordered released after a successful petition for a writ of habeas corpus
Habeas corpus
is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
before Judge Ellen Huvelle
Ellen Segal Huvelle
Ellen Segal Huvelle is a federal judge sitting in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. She has overseen several significant cases...
of the U.S. District Court
United States district court
The United States district courts are the general trial courts of the United States federal court system. Both civil and criminal cases are filed in the district court, which is a court of law, equity, and admiralty. There is a United States bankruptcy court associated with each United States...
in Washington, D.C. on July 30, 2009. On August 24, 2009 he was transported from Guantanamo Bay to Afghanistan.
Age
Like many Afghans, Mohamed Jawad has no official record of his birth, and doesn't know his exact age. Human rights workers trying to more clearly establish a reliable estimate of his birth date were told by his mother that he was born six months after his father was killed during a battle near KhostKhost
Khost or Khowst is a city in eastern Afghanistan. It is the capital of Khost province, which is a mountainous region near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan...
in 1991. In an English language Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and headquartered in Doha, Qatar...
broadcast, one of his uncles said he was born four months after the battle where his father was killed, which he said occurred in 1990.
Guantanamo spokesman Jeffrey D. Gordon
Jeffrey D. Gordon
Jeffrey D. Gordon is a communications consultant to several conservative Washington, DC-based think tanks. Gordon is also a contributing columnist to Fox News, AOL News, the Washington Times and other media outlets. Previously, he was a Commander in the United States Navy.-Naval career:He was...
disputed the human rights workers' claims, referring to bone scans performed when Jawad arrived at Guantanamo, which he asserted established he was eighteen when he arrived at Guantanamo. A report about juveniles held at Guantanamo stated that military records show Jawad to have been either 17 or 18 at the time of his arrival.
Background
Jawad's father was killed in a battle in Khost called Battle for Hill 3234 in January, 1988, and he continued to live with his mother in an Afghan refugee camp in Miran Shah, Pakistan.Jawad was studying at a sixth or seventh-grade level at a school the United States later described as "Jihadi". Several years later, he was approached by four or six men at Qari Mosque in his hometown. They asked if he would be willing to take a lucrative job in Kabul, Afghanistan where recent government attention had been called to the need to remove landmines, and help clear Soviet-era mines from the region for a promised 12,000 Pakistani Rupees.
Jawad agreed, but said he would first need to secure the permission of his mother. The men told him to tell his family he had found a job across the border, but not to mention the details lest they worry about his safety. Some of his relatives tried to discourage him, saying he was too young for a job, but since his mother wasn't present, he decided to accompany the men.
Attack and capture
A white Soviet UAZUAZ-469
The UAZ-469 is an all-terrain vehicle manufactured by UAZ. It was used by the Red Army and other Warsaw Pact forces, as well as paramilitary units in Eastern Bloc countries. In the Soviet Union, it also saw widespread service in all state organizations that needed a robust off-road vehicle.The...
jeep, driven by Sergeant first class
Sergeant First Class
Sergeant First Class is the seventh enlisted rank in the U.S. Army, above Staff Sergeant and below Master Sergeant and First Sergeant, and is the first senior non-commissioned officer rank...
Michael Lyons with Sergeant first class Christopher Martin in the passenger seat and Afghan interpreter Assadullah Khan Omerk in the rear, had just finished an operation in the marketplace and was stopped in traffic, when somebody tossed a homemade grenade through the jeep's missing rear window.
Both soldiers from the 19th Special Forces
19th Special Forces Group (United States)
The 19th Special Forces Group is one of two National Guard groups of the United States Army Special Forces. Headquartered in Draper, Utah, with detachments in Washington, West Virginia, Ohio, Rhode Island, Colorado, California and Texas, the 19th SFG shares responsibility over Southwest Asia with...
were wounded, Lyons in the eye and both feet, and puncturing an eardrum
Eardrum
The eardrum, or tympanic membrane, is a thin membrane that separates the external ear from the middle ear in humans and other tetrapods. Its function is to transmit sound from the air to the ossicles inside the middle ear. The malleus bone bridges the gap between the eardrum and the other ossicles...
, while Martin escaped with less serious injuries to his right knee, and the Afghan interpreter suffered only minor injuries.
Four American Humvees cordoned off the site of the attack, and Afghan police near the area arrested three men, holding Jawad and Ghulam Saki, while releasing a third suspect. A police officer said that he had seen one throw the grenade, and the other tackled by a fruit vendor as he prepared to throw a second. Jawad would later tell his tribunal that he had been handed devices he didn't recognise by the men with him, and told to put them in his pocket and wait for their return. When he went into his pocket to purchase raisins from a shopkeeper, he was asked why he had a "bomb" in his pocket - and the shopkeeper advised him to run and throw the two grenades in the river. It was while running toward the river, yelling at people to move aside because he had a bomb, that Jawad alleges he was "caught".
In an October 2009 interview Jawad asserted that his nose was broken during his first interrogation at an Afghan police station.
Imprisonment at Bagram
Jawad was held at Bagram prison from December 2002 until February 2003.Imprisonment at Guantanamo
Military records show Jawad tried to kill himself on December 25, 2003 by repeatedly banging his head against a cell wall.Medical records
The Department of DefenseUnited States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
published heights and weights for the detainees on March 16, 2007. At the time of his capture in Afghanistan in December 2002, Jawad was weighed at 130 pounds. Jawad is one of the detainees whose inprocess date at Guantánamo is missing. His inprocess weight is recorded as 119 pounds. His inprocess height is recorded as 64 inches tall (5'4"). His weight was recorded 23 times between August 2003 and November 2006. No record of his weight was made for six months during the longest and most widespread Guantánamo hunger strike
Guantánamo Bay hunger strikes
Guantánamo Bay hunger strikes began during the middle of 2005, after detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp initiated two hunger strikes...
from October 2005 through March 2006.
- In 2004 his weight ranged from 118 to 143 pounds.
- In 2005 his weight ranged from 140 to 150 pounds.
- In 2006 his weight ranged from 142 to 160 pounds.
Experienced the "frequent flyer" program
Although the practice was officially banned in March of 2004, in May of 2004 Jawad was given the "frequent flyerFrequent flyer program (Guantanamo)
The frequent flyer program is a controversial technique used by the USA in the Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.Guards deprived detainees of sleep by moving them from one cell to another, multiple times a day, for days or weeks on end....
" program of sleep deprivation
Sleep deprivation
Sleep deprivation is the condition of not having enough sleep; it can be either chronic or acute. A chronic sleep-restricted state can cause fatigue, daytime sleepiness, clumsiness and weight loss or weight gain. It adversely affects the brain and cognitive function. Few studies have compared the...
by being forced to move to a new cell at least every 2 hours and 55 minutes. These transfers happened 112 times over two weeks. Jawad testified that during these weeks, he was subjected to blaring loud music and bright lights at all times. Military records indicated that Jawad lost 10% of his body weight over this period and told doctors he was urinating blood.
Combatant Status Review
A summary of evidence memo was prepared on October 19, 2004 for Jawad's Combatant Status Review TribunalCombatant Status Review Tribunal
The Combatant Status Review Tribunals were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as "enemy combatants". The CSRTs were established July 7, 2004 by order of U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense...
. The memo stated that Jawad was from Miran Shah, Pakistan and was recruited by six men in the local mosque to clear Russian mines in Kabul, Afghanistan. The memo stated allegations that Jawad:
- was affiliated with Hezb-E-IslamiHezb-e-Islami GulbuddinThe Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin is an Afghan islamist political party.The original Hezb-e-Islami was founded in 1977 by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar who is now the head of HIG. The other faction is headed by Mulavi Younas Khalis who split with Hekmatyar and established his own Hezbi Islami in 1979...
, a terrorist organization with ties to Osama bin LadenOsama bin LadenOsama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets... - attended "Jihad Madrassas" that prepared him to fight on the front lines
- attended a training camp in late 2002 and received instruction on the AK-47AK-47The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known as Avtomat Kalashnikova . It is also known as a Kalashnikov, an "AK", or in Russian slang, Kalash.Design work on the AK-47 began in the last year...
, shoulder-held rocket launchers and grenades - told an associate that he would kill Northern AllianceNorthern AllianceThe Afghan Northern Alliance is a military-political umbrella organization created by the Islamic State of Afghanistan in 1996.Northern Alliance may also refer to:*Northern Alliance , a Canadian white supremacist group...
and American forces. - was captured fleeing the scene of a grenade attack targeting American soldiers approximately December 17, 2002.
Jawad had his Personal Representative read from notes from a previous interview at his CSRT hearing. Jawad added verbal testimony for clarification.
First annual Administrative Review Board
A unclassified summary of evidence memo was prepared on November 7, 2005 for Jawad's first annual Administrative Review BoardAdministrative Review Board
The Administrative Review Board is a United States military body that conducts an annual review of the suspects held by the United States in Camp Delta in the United States Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba....
.
It listed several factors favoring continued detention, including that Jawad:
- met with an individual in Khost Province, Afghanistan in October 2002. The individual offered Jawad a job that involved killing Americans,
- met four people at Qurey Mosque in Miran Shah, Pakistan in December 2002. They offered him 12,000 Pakistan Rupees to clear mines, and
- trained for one and a half days in Khost. Jawad was given one or two injections that caused confusion and incoherence. On December 17, 2002, Jawad was given two oral pills that caused the same effects.
The ARB memo repeated claims about training from the CSRT memo, summarized Jawad's statements from his interrogation in Afghanistan immediately after the attack, and registered Jawad's contention that although he was at the scene of the attack, he did not throw the grenade and that he never received any military or terrorist training. There is no transcript listed in Department of Defense records.
Second annual Administrative Review Board
A unclassified summary of evidence memo was prepared on October 26, 2006 for Jawad's second annual Administrative Review Board. The memo lists Jawad's name as Amir Khan. The allegations and denials listed in the memo are mostly similar to earlier memos and mostly summarize alleged statements from Jawad. There is no transcript listed in Department of Defense records.Guantanamo military commission charges
Guantanamo military commission
The Guantanamo military commissions are military tribunals created by the Military Commissions Act of 2006 for prosecuting detainees held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps.- History :...
of attempted murder for allegedly throwing a grenade into a U.S. military vehicle in Kabul, Afghanistan on December 17, 2002. He was the fourth detainee to face charges under the Military Commissions Act of 2006
Military Commissions Act of 2006
The United States Military Commissions Act of 2006, also known as HR-6166, was an Act of Congress signed by President George W. Bush on October 17, 2006. Drafted in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on Hamdan v...
.
On October 17, 2007, Jawad was charged with three counts of attempted murder in violation of the law of war and three counts of intentionally causing bodily injury in violation of the law of war.
Jawad refused to appear at his arraignment in March 2008, but was forcibly removed from his cell and brought to the commission hearing room. He appeared without incident at the next hearing in May.
Jawad's defense attorney, Major David Frakt, filed motions seeking the dismissal of charges based on the fact that Jawad was captured as a teenager, treated brutally in U.S. custody and wasn't a member of a terrorist organization.
Another motion complained of the involvement by the legal advisor to the commissions, Brigadier General Thomas W. Hartmann
Thomas W. Hartmann
Thomas W. Hartmann is an American lawyer and officer in the United States Air Force Reserve. He has 32 years of criminal, commercial and civil litigation experience. Between 1983 and 1991 he was a prosecutor and defense counsel in the Air Force, including duties as Chief Air Force Prosecutor in...
, who had been suspended from participating in another tribunal following similar complaints. On August 14, 2008, judge Colonel Stephen Henley barred Hartmann from future participation in Jawad's case.
Jawad's military prosecutor, Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, resigned from the Office of Military Commissions
Guantanamo military commission
The Guantanamo military commissions are military tribunals created by the Military Commissions Act of 2006 for prosecuting detainees held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps.- History :...
in September 2008.
Vandeveld filed a four-page declaration with the court that stated "potentially exculpatory evidence has not been provided" to the defense.
The evidence included the possibility that Jawad may have been drugged prior to the attack and that the Afghan Interior Ministry said two other men had confessed to throwing the grenade into the U.S. military jeep in Afghanistan. Vandeveld later testified to the same effect in court.
In October 2008, judge Col. Henley determined that both confessions Jawad made to Afghan and U.S. officials on December 17, 2002 were inadmissible due to being obtained as a result of torture, because Afghan policemen threatened to kill him and his family unless he confessed.
Col. Henley ruled the confession in U.S. custody was also inadmissible because of the earlier torture in addition to the fact that the U.S. interrogator blindfolded and hooded Jawad in order to maintain his fearful state.
Maj. Frakt filed a motion on July 28, 2009 with Jawad's military commission asking for dismissal following US District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle
Ellen Segal Huvelle
Ellen Segal Huvelle is a federal judge sitting in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. She has overseen several significant cases...
's ruling he was a noncombatant.
Release order and possible trial in a civilian court
Judge Huvelle was assigned Jawad's habeas corpusHabeas corpus
is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
petition.
On July 17, 2009 Judge Huvelle ruled that the Jawad's confessions were coerced, and thus inadmissible.
She gave the Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
a deadline of July 24, 2009 to produce another justification for holding Jawad as an enemy combatant.
On July 24 the Department of Justice acknowledged it lacked the evidence necessary to justify holding Jawad as an enemy combatant.
According to Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
the Department of Defensee announced it was "taking steps to house" Jawad at an "appropriate facility" in Guantanamo.
United States Attorney General
United States Attorney General
The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...
Eric Holder
Eric Holder
Eric Himpton Holder, Jr. is the 82nd and current Attorney General of the United States and the first African American to hold the position, serving under President Barack Obama....
has said that he has ordered a new criminal investigation.
The Justice Department said the new investigation is examining videotapes of eyewitness testimony that was not previously available.
The new investigation could result in new criminal charges in a civilian court on US soil.
On July 28, 2009 Judge Huvelle gave the Department of Justice 24 hours to justify continuing to hold him so it could conduct an "expedited criminal investigation, scheduling a hearing for July 30, 2009.
On 29 July 2009 BBC News reported that he would be released because "there was no military case for Mr Jawad's continued detention."
Carol Rosenberg
Carol Rosenberg
Carol Rosenberg is a senior journalist, currently with the McClatchy News Service.Rosenberg works at the Miami Herald, which has provided extensive coverage of the operation of the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.-Biography:...
, writing in the Miami Herald, reported on July 28, 2009 that Jawad has been transferred to Camp Iguana
Camp Iguana
Camp Iguana is a small compound in the detainment camp complex on the US Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Camp Iguana originally held three child detainees who camp spokesmen then claimed were the only detainees under age 16. It was closed in the winter of 2004 when the three were sent home...
.
David Frakt told Rosenberg that one of his co-counsels had recently visited Jawad in Camp Iguana. "He's adjusting to his new environment, learning to play the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
and getting caught up on Afghan cricket and soccer scores. He's pleased but bewildered by the legal developments. Yet again he's won, but he's still there."
Repatriation
Carol RosenbergCarol Rosenberg
Carol Rosenberg is a senior journalist, currently with the McClatchy News Service.Rosenberg works at the Miami Herald, which has provided extensive coverage of the operation of the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.-Biography:...
, writing in the Miami Herald, reports that Jawad was repatriated on August 24, 2009.
Jawad was first sent to the Pul-e-Charkhi prison
Pul-e-Charkhi prison
Pul-e-Charkhi , also known as Afghan National Detention Facility, is the largest prison in Afghanistan east of Kabul. Construction of the jail began in the 1970s by order of former president Mohammed Daoud Khan and was completed during the 1980s...
, a former Soviet facility, where the United States built an American wing in 2007.
Major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
Eric Montalvo
Eric Montalvo
Eric Montalvo is an American lawyer and officer in the United States Marine Corps Reserve.He is notable for questioning whether the Department of Justice and Department of Defense should rely on paid witnesses when trying to assemble a new case against his client, Mohammed Jawad...
, a former Defense counsel, said that Jawad was scheduled to meet with President Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai, GCMG is the 12th and current President of Afghanistan, taking office on 7 December 2004. He became a dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001...
, and would then be released into the custody of an uncle, Hajji
Hajji
Hajji or El-Hajj, is an honorific title given to a Muslim person who has successfully completed the Hajj to Mecca, and is often used to refer to an elder, since it can take time to accumulate the wealth to fund the travel. The title is placed before a person's name...
Gul Naik.
Montalvo who had flown to Afghanistan at his own expense because the Department of Defense would not authorize him to help aid Jawad arrival, said: "It's still not over until he can walk free, but he is almost there. I don't trust anything until I see him in his house with his family."
An article published in The National
The National (Abu Dhabi)
The National is a government-owned English-language daily newspaper published in Abu Dhabi. The editor-in-chief since June 8, 2009 has been Hassan Fattah. Prior to this, and from the launch of the newspaper Martin Newland was editor-in-chief. Mubadala Development Company, an investment company...
on October 15, 2009 contained quotes from Jawad in Afghanistan:
See also
- Juveniles held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp
- Sleep deprivationSleep deprivationSleep deprivation is the condition of not having enough sleep; it can be either chronic or acute. A chronic sleep-restricted state can cause fatigue, daytime sleepiness, clumsiness and weight loss or weight gain. It adversely affects the brain and cognitive function. Few studies have compared the...
- Omar KhadrOmar KhadrOmar Ahmed Khadr is a Canadian child soldier and one of the juveniles held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. He was convicted of five charges under the United States Military Commissions Act of 2009 including murder in violation of the law of war and providing material support for terrorism,...