Zahar Omar Hamis Bin Hamdoun
Zahar Omar Hamis Bin Hamdoun | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 13, 1979 Ash-Shihr, Yemen |
| Occupation | Detainee |
| Known for | Detained at Guantanamo Bay detention facility without formal charges |
Zahar Omar Hamis Bin Hamdoun is a Yemeni national who was detained without formal charges at the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention facility located in Cuba. He was assigned the Internment Serial Number 576 at Guantanamo. According to the Department of Defense, his birth date is November 13, 1979, and he was born in Ash-Shihr, Yemen.
Zahar was transferred to Guantanamo on May 5, 2002. He underwent a Periodic Review Board hearing on December 8, 2015.
Official status reviews
During the Bush administration, it was initially claimed that individuals captured in the "war on terror" did not fall under the protections of the Geneva Conventions and could be detained indefinitely without charges or transparent legal processes. However, in 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Rasul v. Bush that detainees held at Guantanamo must be informed of the reasons for their detention and given an opportunity to contest those allegations.
In response to this decision, the Department of Defense created the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants (OARDEC) to conduct Combatant Status Review Tribunals. These hearings were conducted in confined environments where detainees remained shackled throughout.
OARDEC reviews
In December 2008, the Brookings Institution, under the direction of Benjamin Wittes, classified Guantanamo detainees according to common military accusations:
- Zahar Omar Hamis Bin Hamdoun was listed among detainees alleged by military officials to have affiliations with Al Qaeda, to have stayed in safehouses linked to Al Qaeda, the Taliban, or other groups, and to have received terrorist or military training in Afghanistan. He was also identified as an "al Qaeda operative" and included among those captured under circumstances strongly indicative of hostile engagement. Furthermore, he was counted among the "82 detainees who either did not make any statement during CSRT or ARB proceedings or whose statements did not significantly address the military's claims."
Throughout his detention, multiple Summary of Evidence memoranda were prepared for Zahar Omar Hamis Bin Hamdoun during his review sessions:
- Combatant Status Review Tribunal memorandum dated October 14, 2004.
- First annual Administrative Review Board memorandum dated July 12, 2005.
- Second annual Administrative Review Board memorandum dated August 20, 2006.
- Third annual Administrative Review Board memorandum dated September 13, 2007.
These records were generated by OARDEC operating under the U.S. Department of Defense.
Previously undisclosed Joint Task Force Guantanamo evaluation
On April 25, 2011, WikiLeaks, a whistleblower organization, released classified assessments conducted by analysts from Joint Task Force Guantanamo. Among these was an evaluation dated March 27, 2008, signed by camp commander Mark H. Buzby, which recommended that detention should continue.
Hunger strike
On February 11, 2009, US District Court judge Gladys Kessler refused to prohibit the use of restraint chairs employed for force-feeding detainees Omar Khamis Bin Hamdoon and Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bawazir. Although their legal petition described the restraint chair as "tantamount to torture," Judge Kessler indicated she lacked medical expertise to override decisions made by camp healthcare providers and therefore did not have jurisdiction over this matter.
According to Agence France Presse, both Bawazir and Hamdoon did not resist force-feeding procedures. AFP also reported that camp officials withheld medical care for other health issues affecting hunger strikers as a method of pressuring them to end their protest.