Murat Kurnaz

Murat Kurnaz (born c. 1982) was held in extrajudicial detention in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba for four years. He was released Thursday August 24, 2006. Kurnaz, a Turkish citizen and legal resident of Germany, was born and raised in Bremen, Germany and was in the process of becoming a German citizen when he was arrested in Pakistan in late 2001.

In late 2004 the George W. Bush administration was forced to openly review the status of the Guantanamo detainees, and make a determination whether they should have been classified as enemy combatants.

Kurnaz was one of the detainees with enough legal assistance to challenge the legality of his review in a Washington, D.C. court. Both German investigators, and United States Army investigators failed to find any evidence of a tie between Kurnaz and Al-Qaeda or any involvement in terrorist activities. But the three officers who reviewed his case said that they had classified evidence that established his guilt.

Shortly before March 27 2005, apparently through an administrative slip-up, the evidence against Kurnaz was declassified. Much of the evidence therein was exculpatory, but an unsigned, unsupported memo suggested guilt.

One allegation was that he was traveling to Pakistan with Selcuk Bilgin, who was a suspect in a bombing, possibly the 2003 Istanbul Bombings. It appears that Bilgin did not travel, having been stopped at the airport for an unpaid fine. In any event, no case was made against Bilgin.

Kurnaz is one of the detainees who has alleged that he was subject to interrogation techniques that included suffocation by drowning, sexual humiliation, and the desecration of his religion.

According to a German news source he had also been denied the right to return to Germany, as his 'indefinite residence permit' had expired due to his being out of the country for more than six months. (As the child of 'guest workers' he is not afforded full German citizenship, however, by being born in Bremen, is granted an 'indefinite residence permit' there) This ruling by the Foreign Office was overturned by the regional administrative court of Bremen on 30 November, 2004, stating that due to his incarceration in Guantanamo he had been unable to apply for an extension of his 'leave permit' and was thus still eligible to return to Germany.

On December 14, 2005 it was confirmed that officials of the German foreign and domestic intelligence agencies (Bundesnachrichtendienst and Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz) had participated in the interrogation of Kurnaz at least once during a stay at the Guantanamo Bay camps between September 21 and September 27, 2002.

According to a December 22 2005 story by United Press International, a brief stay at a Tablighi Jamaat hostel lead to the decision to capture Kurnaz.

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Kurnaz participated in a Combatant Status Review Tribunal on October 4 2004. The purpose of the CSRTs was to determine whether detainees had been properly determined to have been "enemy combatants". Kurnaz's Tribunal took forty minutes.

Administrative Review Board

The 520 detainees whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal confirmed their classification as "enemy combatants" are given annual reviews, from Administrative Review Boards, which assess how much of a continuing threat they pose to the USA. These boards recommend continued detention, repatriation to the custody of their home countries, or freedom.

During March 2006 the Department of Defense started to comply with a court order from US District Court Justice Jed Rakoff. They released a portable document format file that contained the transcript of Kurnaz's hearing,

The transcript from Kurnaz's hearing is 10 pages long. 75 pages of evidence was classified secret and was omitted from the release, 43 pages of unclassified evidence was released with the transcript of his hearing.

The unclassified evidence includes:

• A letter to the Board from Bazer Azmy, a professor of law at Seton Hall University. This three page letter summarizes the criticisms Justice Joyce Hens Green had of Kurnaz's CSRT. Several paragraphs of this letter were redacted. And although Justice Green's judgement was enclosed, it was not included with the released transcript.
• A letter from Kurnaz's mother, kid brothers and other people who had known Kurnaz for significant periods of time.
• An affidavit from Selcuk Bilgin, the friend who was supposed to be his connection to a suicide bomber. Bilgin confirms that he was not a suicide bomber, that he didn't know any suicide bombers, or anyone with any connection to terrorism.
• A letter from the office of the Bremen prosecutor to Bilgin's lawyer. The letter states: “I have received no question at all (either written or by telephone) from US authorities attempting to obtain confirmation that your client was involved in a suicided attack and/or lost his life in a suicide attack.”
• A letter from Qamar-ul Huda to Bazer Azmy. Huda is a Professor os Islamic Studies and Comparative Religion at Boston College. His three page letter on the history of the Jama'at al-Tablighi, the group Kurnaz's documents list as his terrorist connection, states: “From the very beginning the Jama’at al-Tablighi has deliberately distanced itself from politics, political activities, and political controversies.”
• A letter to Bazer Azmy from Barbara D. Metcalf, Metcalf is the Director of the Center for South Asian Studies and the Alice Freeman Palmer Professor of History at the University of Michican. Metcalf addressed the benevolent nature of Tablighi pilgrimages. She wrote: “I will also attempt to explain why it is implausible to believe that the Tablighis support terrorism or are in any way affiliated with other terrorist or ‘jihadi’ movements such as the Taliban or Al Qaeda.”
• A letter to Bazer Azmy from Jamal J. Ellias. Ellias is a Professor of Religion at Amherst College. He wrote: “I must emphasize this last point, that the Tablighis formally and actively believe that traveling to engage in missionary activity fully discharges any religious obligation to engage in Jihad.”

Release negotiations

On February 12 2006 Deutsche Welle reported that Kurnaz's lawyers were hopeful that German authorities were on the brink of negotiating Kurnaz's repatriation. It speculated that the Americans would agree to the release on the condition Kurnaz be subjected to constant surveillance.

The German magazine Focus reported that the Bush administration is trying to tie the release of Kurnaz to an agreement from Germany to accept four other Guantanamo detainees. The USA has cleared approximately 120 detainees for release - or transfer. However, many of them cannot be returned to their countries of origin because they are likely to face retaliation from their governments.

The German and American governments have denied that Kurnaz's release has been tied to Germany accepting other detainees. Focus says that the German government has agreed to accept one other detainee, not four, and that the Americans have not informed the German government of the identity of the other men it wants them to accept.

External links

• Detainees Accuse Female Interrogators: Pentagon Inquiry Is Said to Confirm Muslims' Accounts of Sexual Tactics at Guantanamo Washington Post, February 10 2005
• Lawyers say Turk was tortured at Guantanamo New Hampshire Union Leader, March 10 2005
• Panel Ignored Evidence on Detainee: U.S. Military Intelligence, German Authorities Found No Ties to Terrorists, Washington Post, March 27 2005
• German Resident Incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay for Two-and-a-Half Years
• "Bremer Taliban" darf in Hansestadt zurückkehren, tagesschau, "'Bremen-Taliban' allowed to return to hometown" November 30, 2005
• "Bremen Taliban" Celebrates Small Legal Victory, Deutsche Welle, December 2, 2005
• Verhör in Guantánamo, n-tv, December 15, 2005
• Guantanamo inmate pins hope on Merkel's U.S. trip, Reuters, January 9 2006