Lahcen Ikassrien

Lahcen Ikassrien is a citizen of Morocco who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.[1] Ikassrien's Guantanamo ISN was 72. The Department of Defense reports that Ikassrien was born on October 2, 1972, in Targist, Morocco.

On June 16, 2014, he was arrested in Madrid accused of jihadism.[2] He received a 10 year sentence, on September 30, 2016, after being convicted of recruiting individuals to go to war-torn Syria.[3][4] Ikassrien alleged that he and other Guantanamo Bay detainees were tortured during their detention, and a Spanish magisterial investigation concluded that they had been subject to abusive interrogation techniques[5].

Background

When Ikassrien was first captured authorities thought his name was Reswan A. Abdesalam.[6] His real identity was revealed through his fingerprints.

Ikassrien was believed to have ties to Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, a mastermind of the Madrid bombing.[6]

On July 3, 2005, Ikassrien was extradited to stand trial in Spain.[6][7]

The International Herald Tribune reported that Ikassrien was acquitted on October 11, 2006.[4]

Official status reviews

Originally the Bush Presidency asserted that captives apprehended in the "war on terror" were not covered by the Geneva Conventions, and could be held indefinitely, without charge, and without an open and transparent review of the justifications for their detention.[8] In 2004 the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, that Guantanamo captives were entitled to being informed of the allegations justifying their detention, and were entitled to try to refute them.

Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants
Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a 3x5 meter trailer where the captive sat with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor.[9][10]

Following the Supreme Court's ruling, the Department of Defense set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants.[8][11]

Combatant status review

Initially, the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct competent tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status.

Subsequently, the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants—rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant.

Allegations

The following allegations were presented to his Tribunal:[12]

a. Detainee is associated with al-Qaida and the Taliban.
  1. The detainee admits being a member of the Taliban.
  2. Detainee was taken to Mazer e-Sharif by Taliban forces.
  3. Detainee admits to associating with Yunnus Shokuri and Radwan Shokuri, both members of al-Qaida affiliated terrorist groups.
b. Detainee engaged in hostilities against the US or its coalition partners.
  1. Detainee admits purchasing a Kalishnakov [sic] rifle in Kabul in May or June 2001.
  2. Detainee was observed on the front line and during the retreat in Afghanistan and at Qala-I Junghi [sic] prison.
  3. Detainee was injured during the U.S. bombing of Konduz.
  4. Detainee took refuge in an underground hiding area with Taliban forces during the U.S. bombing of Mazar e-Sharif [sic].
  5. Detainee was captured by U.S. forces with other Taliban members in Mazar e-Sharif.

Transcript

There is no record that Lahcen Ikassrien chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

Torture

On November 19, 2006, El País published an article in which Ikassrien alleges that he had been tortured repeatedly over the course of a month during his detention in Kandahar. He alleges that he was subjected to various forms of torture, including being trapped with aggressive dogs, being tied up, and that soldiers held him in a cage where they showered him with feces and urine while calling him "Animal No. 64".[13][14]

Torture claims investigation

On April 29, 2009, that Spanish investigating magistrate Baltasar Garzon initiated a formal investigation into whether confessions from Ikassrien, and three other former Guantanamo captives were the result of the use of abusive interrogation techniques.[15][16][5] Ikassrien, and the other three men: Hamed Abderrahman Ahmed, Jamiel Abdul Latif al Banna and Omar Deghayes, had previously faced charges in Spanish courts, based on confessions they made while in US custody. Their charges had been dropped based on their claims that their confessions were false and were the result of abusive interrogation techniques.

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See also

References
  1. OARDEC (May 15, 2006). "List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Retrieved September 29, 2007.
  2. ÁNGELES ESCRIVÁ (June 16, 2014). "La Policía detiene a nueve personas en Madrid en una operación contra una red que captaba yihadistas" [Police detained nine people in Madrid in an operation against a network that captured jihadists]. Elmundo (in Spanish). Archived from the original on June 16, 2014. Retrieved September 30, 2016. El principal líder de esta célula residía en España tras su paso por la base militar de Guantánamo (EEUU), tras ser detenido en Afganistán en el año 2001. Se trataría de Lahcen Ikassriem, extraditado a España en 2005 y absuelto por el Tribunal Supremo.
  3. "Spanish court jails ex-Guantanamo inmate". Fox News. September 30, 2016. Archived from the original on September 29, 2016. Retrieved September 30, 2016. The National Court sentenced Lahcen Ikassrien, a 48-year-old Moroccan, to 10 years in prison for leading a terrorist organisation and one year and six months for falsifying an official document.
  4. Spanish court acquits Moroccan who was held at Guantanamo, International Herald Tribune, October 11, 2006
  5. Gerald Warner (April 29, 2009). "Spanish judge uses memos released by Barack Obama to pursue Bush officials". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on April 29, 2009.
  6. Josh White (July 21, 2005). "3 Guantanamo Detainees Freed: Review Board Finds the Foreign Nationals No Threat to U.S." Washington Post. Retrieved September 30, 2016. Most notably, three of the detainees had been cleared by a U.S. military Administrative Review Board (ARB), which evaluates whether a prisoner still poses a threat to the United States or its allies. The two detainees released to Afghanistan and one of the detainees released to Saudi Arabia are part of the first group to be approved through that process to be given their freedom.
  7. Margot Williams (November 3, 2008). "Guantanamo Docket: Laacin Ikassrin". New York Times. Retrieved July 9, 2016.
  8. "U.S. military reviews 'enemy combatant' use". USA Today. October 11, 2007. Archived from the original on August 11, 2012. Critics called it an overdue acknowledgment that the so-called Combatant Status Review Tribunals are unfairly geared toward labeling detainees the enemy, even when they pose little danger. Simply redoing the tribunals won't fix the problem, they said, because the system still allows coerced evidence and denies detainees legal representation.
  9. Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court, New York Times, November 11, 2004 - mirror Archived September 30, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  10. Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004
  11. "Q&A: What next for Guantanamo prisoners?". BBC News. January 21, 2002. Archived from the original on November 24, 2008. Retrieved November 24, 2008.
  12. OARDEC (2004). "Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal – Ikrassin Laacin" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. p. 88. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 2, 2007. Retrieved October 3, 2007.
  13. "Animal Number 64". ucdavis.edu.
  14. Ediciones El País. "Animal número 64". EL PAÍS.
  15. Giles Tremblett (April 29, 2009). "Spanish court opens investigation of Guantánamo torture allegations". The Guardian. Archived from the original on April 29, 2009.
  16. "Spanish judge opens probe into Guantanamo torture". Agence France-Presse. April 29, 2009. Archived from the original on April 29, 2009.
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