Abdul Rahman Shalabi is a citizen of Saudi Arabia held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 42.
Shalabi arrived on January 11, 2002, the day the camp opened, and he was released on September 21, 2015. He is regularly described as an Osama bin Laden bodyguard and a member of al Qaeda—accusations he consistently disputed.
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. 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
Following the Supreme Court's ruling the Department of Defense set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants. Scholars at the Brookings Institution, led by Benjamin Wittes, listed the captives still held in Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain common allegations:
Abdul Rahman Shalabi was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... are members of Al Qaeda." Abdul Rahman Shalabi was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... took military or terrorist training in Afghanistan." Abdul Rahman Shalabi was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... fought for the Taliban." Abdul Rahman Shalabi was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... were at Tora Bora." Abdul Rahman Shalabi was listed as one of the captives whose "names or aliases were found on material seized in raids on Al Qaeda safehouses and facilities." Abdul Rahman Shalabi was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... served on Osama Bin Laden’s security detail." Abdul Rahman Shalabi was listed as one of the captives who was an "al Qaeda operative". Abdul Rahman Shalabi was listed as one of the "82 detainees made no statement to CSRT or ARB tribunals or made statements that do not bear materially on the military’s allegations against them."
Habeas corpus petition
A writ of habeas corpus, Abdul Rahman Shalabi v. George W. Bush, was submitted on Abdul Rahman Shalabi's behalf. In response, on May 19, 2005, the Department of Defense released eighteen pages of unclassified documents related to his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.
On November 5, 2004, Tribunal panel 19 convened, and confirmed his "enemy combatant" status, based on classified "evidence".
Detainee election form
The Detainee election form prepared by his Personal Representative
record they met, for fifteen minutes, for a pre-Tribunal interview, at 8:15 am on November 4, 2004, the day before the Tribunal convened. It records:
Recorder exhibit list
The documents released in response to the habeas corpus petition contained a Recorder exhibit list.
The Military Commissions Act of 2006 mandated that Guantanamo captives were no longer entitled to access the US civil justice system, so all outstanding habeas corpus petitions were stayed.
On June 12, 2008, the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Boumediene v. Bush, that the Military Commissions Act could not remove the right for Guantanamo captives to access the US Federal Court system. And all previous Guantanamo captives' habeas petitions were eligible to be re-instated.
On July 18, 2008, Julia Tarver Mason filed a motion to renew Abdul Rahman Shalabi's habeas corpus petition. The petition states that five other Saudi citizens who had been part of the original 2005 petition had been repatriated to Saudi Arabia. Their names were listed as: Saleh Al-Oshan, Zaben Al Shammari, Abdullah Al Otaibi, Fahd Nasser Mohamed and Musa Al Wahab.
The petition stated that the files the Department of Defense provided to his attorney's were incomplete: { | class="wikitable" border="1" | The factual return provided in May 2005, however, is incomplete and missing important substantive information about Shalabi and the evidence against him. Nor has the factual return been supplemented to include the record of further proceedings such as Administrative Review Board records. The complete classified and unredacted factual returns and the classified records of the Administrative Review Board will be necessary in pursuing the case. |}