Ahmed al-Darbi

Ahmed Muhammed Haza al-Darbi (احمد محمد هزاع آل الدربي) is a citizen of Saudi Arabia currently held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. Al-Darbi was born on January 9, 1975, in Ta'if, Saudi Arabia. As of early 2010, al-Darbi has been confined at the Guantanamo camps for almost seven years.

Background
The brother-in-law of Khalid al-Mihdhar, al-Darbi was captured in Azerbaijan and was renditioned into Afghanistan. There he was held in the Bagram Collection Point, while it was still under control of Alpha Company of the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion who routinely beat their captives, resulting in the deaths of two prisoners on December 4, 2001 and December 10, 2001. Al-Darbi identified Damien M. Corsetti, a soldier nicknamed "the King of Torture" by his fellow GIs, as one of his abusers.

Corsetti's lawyer asserts that al-Darbi's claims of abuse are not credible. Corsetti's lawyers claim al Darbi repeats the meme al Qaeda training manuals instruct captives to lie about abuse, and asserts that Al Darbi is following those instructions.

Department of Defense spokesmen have announced that al-Darbi will not be allowed to testify at Corsetti's court martial.

On December 21, 2007 charges against Ahmed Muhammed Haza al-Darbi were referred to the convening authority for the Office of Military Commissions.

United States v. Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza al-Darbi
On December 21, 2007 charges against Ahmed Muhammed Haza al-Darbi were referred to Susan Crawford, who approved them to continue to trial.


 * He had trained at the Jihad Wahl training camp;
 * He transferred funds to finance the plot to attack shipping;
 * He purchased a vessel, registered in Sao Tome, to use in the attacks.

In April 2008 he announced that he refused to participate in the tribunal as he believed it lacked legitimacy, and dismissed his military lawyer Brian Broyles who called the refusal a "reasonable decision".

According to the Associated Press, at a hearing in December 2008 he had "held up a photo of President Barack Obama as a sign of hope." According to the Associated Press, a note he wrote to his lawyer about Obama said he could: ""earn back the legitimacy the United States has lost in the eyes of the world,"

Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Miami Herald, reported that Commission President James Pohl scheduled a hearing for May 27, 2009, to rule on how much of the evidence against Al Darbi was coerced through torture.

At a hearing on September 23, 2009 his Presiding Officer of his military commission agreed to a further sixty day delay. His lawyer Ramzi Kassem told reporters after the hearing that Al Darbi had written a brief note, addressed to President Obama, that he had hoped to read aloud at the hearing. Kassem read the note aloud to reporters. The Associated Press quoted passages from the note.