Mansur Ahmad Saad al-Dayfi

Mansur Ahmad Saad al-Dayfi (born 1979) is a Yemeni who was held without charge in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps in Cuba from February 9, 2002, to July 11, 2016. On July 11, 2016, he and a Tajikistani captive were transferred to Serbia.

Al-Dayfi came to prominence in 2022 when he alleged that Florida governor Ron DeSantis oversaw beatings and force-feedings of detainees at Guantanamo.

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 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: Formerly secret Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment

Al-Dayfi's thirteen-page Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment was drafted on June 9, 2008. It was signed by camp commandant Rear Admiral David M. Thomas Jr., who recommended continued detention.

Transfer to Serbia

Al-Dayfi was transferred to Serbia, which al-Dayfi describes as "Guantanamo 2.0". He was transferred together with an individual from Tajikistan named "Muhammadi Davlatov".

Open letter to President Biden

On January 29, 2021 the New York Review of Books published an open letter from al-Dayfi and six other individuals who were formerly held in Guantanamo to newly inaugurated US president Joe Biden, appealing to him to close the detention camp.

2025 Prisoners for Palestine Hunger Strike In December 2025, Al-Dayfi began a hunger strike in solidarity with the hunger strikers in the UK as part of the Prisoners for Palestine Hunger Strike.