Ali al-Bahlul

Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman al-Bahlul (; born September 11, 1969) is a Yemeni citizen who has been held as an enemy combatant since 2002 in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camp. He boycotted the Guantanamo Military Commissions, arguing that there was no legal basis for the military tribunals to judge him.

He was convicted in November 2008 of performing media relations for Osama bin Laden, the founder of al-Qaeda, and sentenced to life imprisonment, after a jury of nine military officers deliberated for less than an hour.

The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned most of his convictions on January 25, 2013. In October 2016, a divided D.C. Circuit affirmed Bahlul's final remaining conviction, which was for criminal conspiracy. In October 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Bahlul's petition for a writ of certiorari.

Background Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts describe Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman al-Bahlul as al Qaeda's public relations director. He is alleged to have created propaganda videos glorifying attacks against the United States. He set up a satellite receiver for Osama bin Laden, the leader of the terrorist organization, to listen to live radio coverage of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

Official status reviews Following the ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States in Rasul v. Bush the Department of Defense was instructed to set up a system where Guantanamo captives would be informed as to why they were being held. The DoD set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants (OARDEC). OARDEC conducted annual reviews from 2004 to 2008. 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:

Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman al-Bahlul was listed as one of the captives who: had faced charges before a military commission. He was indicted along with Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi. Lieutenant Commander Philip Sundel, his first military defense attorney, described the difficulty in getting a security clearance for a translator to talk to his client. Sundel told CBS News: "There's virtually no chance he can get a fair trial."

Bahlul asked Peter Brownback, the president of the commissions, if he could represent himself.

Carol Rosenberg of the Miami Herald, reported that Bahlul would be allowed to represent himself before the newly authorized military commissions, although he was not previously allowed to do so before the Presidentially authorized commissions. David McFadden of the Associated Press reported that only three reporters covered Bahlul's trial, associated with the Miami Herald, the Associated Press, and Reuters. The new law authorized detainees to represent themselves by choice.

Testimony of members of the "Buffalo Six" In late October 2008, three of the men from the group known as the "Buffalo Six" testified at Bahlul's Guantanamo military commissions. They testified on having been shown a two-hour video that Bahlul produced.

Conviction On November 3, 2008, Bahlul was convicted of conspiring with al-Qaeda, soliciting murder and providing material support for terrorism. At his sentencing, he admitted he was a member of al-Qaeda, and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Isolation from the other captives Rosenberg has reported that, following his conviction, Al-Bahlul was separated from the other captives.

Appeal Rosenberg in the Miami Herald reported that Bahlul's military defense attorneys filed a 50-page appeal of his sentence on grounds of free speech. The appeal was the second filed with the Court for Military Commission Review. A panel of the D.C. Circuit vacated Bahlul's remaining conspiracy conviction in June 2015. Judge Judith W. Rogers, joined by David S. Tatel, found that conspiracy is not a crime under the international law of war, with Judge Karen L. Henderson writing a 85-page dissent.

On September 25, 2015, the D.C. Circuit vacated its June judgment and granted the Government's petition for rehearing en banc. The Circuit specifically directed the rehearing would consider the standard of appellate review and as to if Congress's attempts to define and punish war crimes transgresses the Article III powers of courts.

On October 20, 2016, the full D.C. Circuit voted 6–3 to affirm Bahlul's conspiracy conviction. Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh, wrote the four-judge plurality opinion for Judges Henderson, Janice Rogers Brown, and Thomas B. Griffith, finding that Congress can make crimes triable before military commissions even if those crimes are not internationally recognized war crimes. Judges Patricia Millett and Robert L. Wilkins, voted to affirm Bahlul's conviction but did not join the plurality's opinion, each writing that the case should be decided on more narrow grounds.