Yasim Muhammed Basardah
Yasim Muhammed Basardah | |
|---|---|
| Born | Yemen |
| Occupation(s) | Former detainee, informant |
| Known for | Detention at Guantanamo Bay; serving as informant; legal appeals related to detention |
Yasim Muhammed Basardah is a Yemeni national who was held at the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camp located in Cuba. He was assigned the Guantanamo Internment Serial Number 252. During his incarceration, Basardah served as an informant for interrogators, which earned him certain privileges such as a private cell, McDonald's apple pies, chewing tobacco, and a truck magazine as incentives. Although he provided significant intelligence information, military authorities have expressed doubts about his reliability since 2004. Furthermore, a federal judge later determined that his testimony could not be used to justify the continued detention of another prisoner.
Habeas corpus petition and Detainee Treatment Act appeal
A habeas corpus petition was submitted on behalf of Yasim Muhammed Basardah. In September 2007, the Department of Justice published unclassified documents from Combatant Status Review Tribunals involving 179 detainees; however, Basardah’s records were not included in this release.
Detainee Treatment Act and Military Commissions Act
The United States Congress enacted the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 and the Military Commissions Act of 2006, both of which limited Guantanamo detainees’ ability to file habeas corpus petitions. Under the Detainee Treatment Act, detainees who had not previously submitted habeas petitions were barred from initiating new ones. Instead, they were permitted to file restricted appeals before three-judge panels based in Washington DC courts, focusing solely on procedural matters related to the Combatant Status Review Tribunals.
Subsequently, nine months later, the Military Commissions Act terminated all pending habeas petitions. Some detainees then pursued appeals under the provisions outlined in the Detainee Treatment Act.
These DTA appeals advanced at a slow pace. Initially, the Department of Justice contended that only the "Summary of Evidence" memoranda prepared for CSR Tribunals needed to be reviewed. By September 2007, however, courts ruled that all underlying evidence supporting these summaries must be disclosed. The government then argued that presenting this evidence was impossible because it had not been preserved.
Only a single detainee, a Uyghur detainee named Hufaiza Parhat, successfully completed a DTA appeal. On June 20, 2008, his three-judge panel found that his Tribunal had made errors and concluded he should never have been designated an enemy combatant.
Boumediene v. Bush
On June 12, 2008, the United States Supreme Court decided in Boumediene v. Bush that the Military Commissions Act could not eliminate Guantanamo detainees’ constitutional right to access federal courts. This ruling reinstated all previously filed habeas petitions from Guantanamo prisoners. Judges tasked with reviewing these cases would determine whether sufficient evidence existed to classify detainees as "enemy combatants."
Basardah’s DTA appeal
On November 5, 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit halted Basardah’s appeal under the Detainee Treatment Act due to jurisdictional issues. The court observed that when Congress enacted the DTA—stripping detainees of habeas rights—it did not foresee the Supreme Court’s decision restoring those rights, complicating efforts to pursue simultaneous legal avenues.
Legal commentator Lyle Denniston from Scotusblog noted that this suspension effectively ended DTA appeals for future petitioners and established a precedent likely impacting approximately 190 pending cases. Basardah had been awaiting resolution of his DTA appeal since June 2007.
Asylum in Spain
On 19 May 2010, historian Andy Worthington, who authored The Guantanamo Files, revealed that Saba News had reported Yasin's relocation to Spain. According to the announcement, Yasin was freed following his cooperation with officials, implying he could be Yasim Basardah (also known as Yasin Basardh), who had successfully won a habeas corpus case earlier that year.