Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri
Nationality: SaudiAbd al-Rahim al-Nashiri is a 43-year-old Saudi of Yemeni descent. He has been charged before a US military commission with conspiracy to commit terrorism, murder and attempted murder in violation of the laws of war, and terrorism. The US alleges that he participated in the planning and preparation for the attack on the destroyer USS Cole on Oct. 12 2000, the failed attack on the destroyer USS The Sullivans on January 3, 2000, and the attack on the French supertanker SS Limburg on October 6, 2002. These are the first charges to be brought from the investigation into the USS Cole bombing. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.
Although al-Nashiri was arrested in 2002, he was held incommunicado in CIA custody for almost four years before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2006. In February 2008 CIA director General Michael Hayden confirmed that the US had "waterboarded" al-Nashiri and two other detainees while he was being held in CIA custody. Waterboarding, a torture technique in which a prisoner is made to believe he is drowning, violates both the federal anti-torture statute and the War Crimes Act. Although the CIA videotaped the interrogations in which terrorism suspects were waterboarded and subjected to other “severe interrogation techniques,” the CIA confirmed that at least two videotapes documenting the interrogations had been destroyed in 2005. Several officials said that the tapes were destroyed in part because officers were concerned that the video could expose agency officials to legal or security risks.
Human Rights Watch expects the use of evidence allegedly obtained through abuse to be a central concern in his case. According to the released transcript of his hearing before the Combatant Status Review Tribunal on March 14, 2007, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri claimed that any confessions made by him were coerced during years of torture by US officials. The Convening Authority of the military commission must approve the charges before al Nashiri is formally charged.
On September 29, 2004, al-Nashiri was sentenced to death in absentia by a Yemeni court.
