Ahmed al-Darbi

Background The brother-in-law of Khalid al-Mihdhar, who participated in the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, specifically that on the Pentagon, al-Darbi was captured in Azerbaijan and arrested in June 2002. There he was held in the Bagram Collection Point, while it was still under control of Alpha Company of the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion. They were reported to have beat their captives, allegedly resulting in the deaths of two prisoners on December 4, 2001, and December 10, 2001. In May 2006, Department of Defense spokesmen said that al-Darbi would not be allowed to testify at Corsetti's court martial for the deaths of detainees under his control.

Al-Darbi was transported from Bagram to the detention center at Guantanamo Navy Base in August 2002.

Military Commission charges

On December 21, 2007, charges against Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza al-Darbi were referred to Susan Crawford, head of the Guantanamo military commissions, who approved them to continue to trial. According to the Associated Press, al-Darbi wrote to his lawyer that Obama could: "earn back the legitimacy the United States has lost in the eyes of the world."

At a hearing on September 23, 2009, the Presiding Officer of the military commission to hear al-Darbi's case agreed to a 60-day delay. The Associated Press reported that the new charges had first been proposed in 2012.

On July 30, 2015, Spencer Ackerman, reporting in The Guardian, described efforts by al-Darbi's prosecution team to acquire incriminating evidence. They tried to persuade another detainee, Mohamedou Ould Slahi, to agree to be interrogated about al-Darbi. In 2004, the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, that Guantanamo captives were entitled to habeas corpus, that is, 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.

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:

Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza al-Darbi was listed as one of the captives who had faced charges before a military commission. Al-Darbi's assessment was drafted on October 1, 2004. It was eight pages long, and was signed by camp commandant Brigadier General Jay W. Hood. He recommended continued detention.

2009 Joint Review Task Force When he assumed office in January 2009, President Barack Obama convened a six-agency task force to review the status of detainees at Guantanamo. It was part of his unsuccessful effort to move the proceedings and close the facility by early 2010. In its report a year later, the task force characterized most detainees as low-level fighters and recommended 53 be repatriated quickly. Obama promised that the use of torture would cease at the camp. He promised to institute a new review system. That new review system was composed of officials from six departments, where the OARDEC reviews were conducted entirely by the Department of Defense. When it reported back, a year later, the Joint Review Task Force classified some individuals as too dangerous to be transferred from Guantanamo, even though there was insufficient evidence to charge them with crimes. On April 9, 2013, that document was made public after a Freedom of Information Act request. Ahmed al-Darbi was classified as of April 19, 2013, as among 71 individuals considered too dangerous to release but with insufficient evidence for charges.