Gholam Ruhani

Gholam Ruhani is a citizen of Afghanistan, who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 3.

When he was captured by US intelligence official with Abdul Haq Wasiq in Ghazni in late 2001. Their capture was called the capture of "number two and number three in Taliban intelligence". On his release, Carol Rosenberg of the Miami Herald, noted that he had been included in the very first flight to Guantanamo, quoting camp commandant Michael Lehnert, that they wanted the worst captives first.

Background
A widely distributed Associated Press story said that Ruhani was a clerk for the Taliban intelligence service. AP quoted from Ruhani's testimony before his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.
 * ''"The Taliban law was that young people had to join the Taliban, I had to join, but protested several times that I had an old father and I wanted to go back to my family. ... If I had not cooperated with the Taliban Intelligence service member, I would have been sent to the front lines. I was afraid I would be killed."

Capture
According to Ruhani, he was a recently married store clerk at his father's electrical supply store where he learned a little English to make some sense of the electronics manuals in his family's shop. Ruhani was seized near his hometown of Ghazni on December 9, 2001 when he agreed to translate for Abdul Haq Wasiq, a Taliban government official seeking a meeting with a U.S. soldier.

Held aboard the USS Bataan
Former Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef described being flown to the United States Navy's amphibious warfare vessel, the USS Bataan, for special interrogation. Zaeef wrote that the cells were located six decks down, were only 1 meter by 2 meters. He wrote that the captives weren't allowed to speak with one another, but that he "eventually saw that Mullahs Fazal, Noori, Burhan, Wasseeq Sahib and Rohani were all among the other prisoners." Historian Andy Worthington, author of the The Guantanamo Files, identified Ruhani as one of the men Zaeef recognized. He identified Mullah Wasseeq as Abdul-Haq Wasiq, Mullah Noori as Norullah Noori and Mullah Fazal as Mohammed Fazil.

Ruhani arrived at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp on January 11, 2002.

Combatant Status Review


Ruhani was among the 60% of prisoners who participated in the tribunal hearings. A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for the tribunal of each detainee. The memo for his hearing lists the following allegations:

Ruhani's Personal Representative read a statement prepared by Ruhani. Summarized transcripts (.pdf)], from Gholam Ruhani's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 7–12

Allegations
Unlike most of the other transcripts from captive's Combatant Status Review Tribunal Ruhani's transcript did not record the allegations against him.

First annual Administrative Review Board
A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Gholam Ruhani's first annual Administrative Review Board, on 2 May 2005. The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention.

The following primary factors favor continued detention

The following primary factors favor release or transfer

Transcript
Ruhani chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.

Second annual Administrative Review Board
A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Gholam Ruhani's second annual Administrative Review Board, on 22 March 2006. The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention.

The following primary factors favor continued detention

The following primary factors favor release or transfer

Repatriation
A captive named "Ghulam Ruhani" was transferred to Afghan custody in "a U.S-sponsored lockup near Kabul. An American sponsored wing of the Pul-e-charkhi prison was opened near Kabul, in mid 2007. This 316 cell prison was built at a cost of $30 million, to enable captives to be transferred from Guantanamo and the Bagram Theater internment facility.

According to an article by Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Miami Herald, Ghulam Ruhani had initially been held with David Hicks and John Walker Lindh, aboard a USN warship. Ruhani was one of the first twenty captives transferred to Guantanamo on January 11, 2002, whose images were captured in a widely republished picture of kneeling captives.

On November 25, 2008 the Department of Defense published a list of when Guantanamo captives were repatriated. According to that list he was repatriated on December 12, 2007.

The Center for Constitutional Rights reports that all of the Afghans repatriated to Afghanistan from April 2007 were sent to Afghan custody in the American built and supervised wing of the Pul-e-Charkhi prison near Kabul.