Ruhal Ahmed

Ruhal Ahmed (also spelled Rhuhel Ahmed) (born 11 March 1981) is a British citizen who was detained without trial for over two years by the United States government, beginning in Afghanistan in 2001, and then in the United States Guantánamo Bay detention camp, Cuba. His Internment Serial Number was 110. Ahmed was returned to the United Kingdom in March 2004, where he was released the next day without charges.

He was one of three British men, friends from Tipton, United Kingdom, who had been detained. They became known as the Tipton Three. In August 2004 Ahmed, Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal, they compiled and released a report on their abuses while in US custody.

In Rasul v. Rumsfeld, the Tipton Three and Jamal Udeen Al-Harith, four former Guantánamo Bay internees, sued former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. They charge that illegal interrogation tactics were permitted to be used against them by Rumsfeld and the US military chain of command.

The 2006 film, The Road to Guantánamo is a docu-drama by Michael Winterbottom depicting their account of their detention.

Travel and detention
With his friends Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal, Ahmed in October 2001, weeks after the 9/11 attacks in the United States, traveled to Pakistan for a friend's wedding. While there, they went into Afghanistan and got caught when war broke out with US and allied bombings and attacks. They were captured by soldiers of the Northern Alliance and transferred to the custody of the US Army, as they had lost all their identification and luggage. They were detained there and transported to Guantanamo Bay detention camps on US territory in Cuba, where they were severely interrogated and treated as enemy combatants.

Return to UK
They were returned to the UK in March 2004, and released the next day without charges.

In August 2004 they compiled and released a report on their abuses while in US custody.

In Rasul v. Rumsfeld, the Tipton Three and Jamal Udeen Al-Harith, four former Guantánamo Bay internees, sued former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. They charge that illegal interrogation tactics were permitted to be used against them by Rumsfeld and the US military chain of command.

Three suicides at Guantanamo, June 2006
The Associated Press quoted Ahmed following the US announcement of the deaths of three detainees at Guantanamo in June 2006, who were alleged to have committed suicide. He said, “There is no hope in Guantanamo. The only thing that goes through your mind day after day is how to get justice or how to kill yourself. It is the despair - not the thought of martyrdom - that consumes you there.” He went on, "A Saudi detainee in the cell in front of us had had enough. We could hear him rip up his sheets and tie it to the wire mesh roof of the cell. He jumped off his sink and tried to hang himself. We shouted to the military police and they came and saved him.” Last, he said, "It’s weird because when we left we weren't even that religious, We were young - average British lads. Obviously if we knew what we were getting ourselves into we would have never gone.”

The 2006 film, The Road to Guantánamo is a docu-drama by Michael Winterbottom based on their account of their detention. Ahmed was refused a visa by Australia to travel there to promote the film.

Ahmed has taken part in a campaign against torture, organized by Amnesty International.

McClatchy interview
On 15 June 2008, the McClatchy News Service published articles based on interviews with 66 former Guantanamo captives. McClatchy reporters interviewed Ruhal Ahmed in Britain.

Ahmed said when he returned to Tipton, someone had hung an effigy clad in an orange Guantanamo coverall, labelled “Tipton Taliban will die.”