Yasin Qasem Muhammad Ismail

Yasin Qasem Muhammad Ismail is a Yemeni who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.

Inconsistent identification

The Yemen Times reported, on March 11, 2007, that a Yemeni named Sadeq Mohammed Ismail, who was also born in Ibb, was on the list of Yemenis who had been cleared for release. The official list does not include a captive named Sadeq Mohammed Ismail. 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:

Yasin Qasem Muhammad Ismail was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... are associated with Al Qaeda."

During Ismail's first statement to his Combatant Status Review Tribunal he wrote: "I will talk with you as long as you guarantee me there will be no torture." Ismail said his prior confessions were lies - just to get the torture to stop.

Habeas corpus petition

Ismail had a writ of habeas corpus submitted on his behalf. His 12-page Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment was drafted on November 10, 2008. It was signed by camp commandant Rear Admiral David M. Thomas Jr. He recommended continued detention.

Incident of January 7, 2009

On February 23, 2009, the Christian Science Monitor reported on an incident that occurred on January 7, 2009, where camp authorities version conflicted with that of Ismail. Both camp authorities and Ismail agree that during his exercise period Ismail requested he be moved from his exercise pen, into a nearby empty exercise pen that was exposed to the Sun. He was told, "You are not allowed to see the Sun." According to David Remes, one of Ismail's lawyers, Ismail and his guards engaged in an angry dispute, and a frustrated Ismail, who had not seen the Sun in a month, took off one of his sandals, and threw it at the pen's fence near his guards.

According to Remes, Ismail was left in the exercise pen for hours, until night fell, and he fell asleep. Captives' attorney, like Yasin's attorney David Remes, were aware of the sit-in, but were not allowed to tell reporters without violating their classification agreement. Rosenberg said the sit-in involved approximately half the captives held in Camp 5. The captives refused to leave their exercise yard, and in contrast to previous confrontations with the camp authorities, they decided to wait out the protesters, rather than resort to violence.

The sit-in was triggered by increased security measures following the June 1, 2009, apparent suicide of Muhammed Ahmad Abdallah Salih.