Mohamedou Ould Slahi

Mohamedou Ould Slahi (محمدو ولد الصلاحي; born December 21, 1970) is a Mauritanian engineer who was detained at Guantánamo Bay detention camp without charge from 2002 until his release on October 17, 2016.

The United States had supported the Mujahideen against the Soviet occupation starting in 1979, and funnelled billions of dollars of weapons and aid to the "freedom fighters".

In 1988, he received a scholarship from the Carl Duisberg Society to study in West Germany, where he earned an electrical engineering degree from the University of Duisburg.

After the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, there was a civil war between Mohammad Najibullah's government and the Mujahideen.

Slahi trained for several weeks at the al Farouq training camp near Khost, which was run by al Qaeda, one of many Mujahideen groups in the civil war.

Slahi traveled from his home in Germany to Afghanistan in December 1990 "to support the mujahideen."

Slahi trained in an al Qaeda camp and swore allegiance to the organization in March 1991.

In 1991, Slahi travelled to Afghanistan to join the Mujahideen fighting against the communist central government.

At the end of his training in March 1991, he swore bayat to al Qaeda and was given the kunya (nom de guerre) of "Abu Musab."

However, he did not participate in the civil war, instead returning to Germany.

He returned to Germany soon after, but traveled back to Afghanistan for two months in early 1992.

Slahi said that, after leaving Afghanistan the second time, he "severed all ties with ... al-Qaeda."

The U.S. government maintains that Slahi "recruited for al-Qaeda and provided it with other support" since then.

In February 1992, Slahi travelled again to Afghanistan and was assigned to a mortar battery in Gardez.

He lived in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, from November 1999 to January 2000.

Slahi was suspected of involvement in the attempted LAX bombing and was investigated by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Due to the scrutiny, Slahi returned to live in Mauritania where he was questioned and cleared of involvement.

After the September 11 attacks, the U.S. again was interested in Slahi.

He was brought in for questioning by Mauritanian authorities on November 20, 2001, after which he was detained for seven days and questioned by Mauritanian officers and by agents of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The CIA then transported Slahi to a Jordanian prison through its extraordinary rendition program; he was held for eight months.

Slahi said he was tortured by the Jordanians.

After being flown to Afghanistan and held for two weeks, he was transferred to military custody and the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba on August 4, 2002, under the authority of the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF).

Slahi was subjected to sleep deprivation, isolation, temperature extremes, beatings and sexual humiliation at Guantánamo.

In one documented incident, he was blindfolded and taken out to sea in a boat for a mock execution.

Lt. Col Stuart Couch refused to prosecute Slahi in a Military Commission in 2003.

He said that "Salahi's incriminating statements—the core of the government's case—had been taken through torture, rendering them inadmissible under U.S. and international law."

In 2005, the internationally recognized criminal defense lawyer Nancy Hollander got involved in Slahi’s case, together with lawyer Theresa Duncan.

They argued Slahi’s rights to a fair trial, despite criticism for defending a terrorist suspect.

Slahi wrote a memoir in 2005 while imprisoned, which the U.S. government declassified in 2012 with numerous redactions.

In 2010, Judge James Robertson granted a writ of habeas corpus, ordering Slahi to be released on March 22.

In his unclassified opinion, Judge Robertson wrote: "... associations alone are not enough, of course, to make detention lawful."

The Department of Justice appealed the decision.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the ruling and remanded the case to the District Court on November 5, 2010, for further factual findings.

The District Court never held the second habeas hearing.

The memoir was published as Guantánamo Diary in January 2015 and became an international bestseller.

Slahi is the first Guantánamo detainee to publish a memoir while imprisoned.

Slahi wrote four other books while in detention, but he has not been allowed to access these books since being removed from Guantanamo.

Slahi was an exceptional student in high school in Mauritania.

On July 14, 2016, Slahi was approved by a Periodic Review Board for release from detention.

Slahi was freed and returned to Mauritania on October 17, 2016; he had been imprisoned at Guantánamo for over fourteen years.