The Full List of Prisoners Charged in the Military Commissions at Guantánamo

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Extensively updated in February 2025, this is a list that I first put together in March 2014, and updated in September 2016, because, at the time, there was no one place where those interested in the “war on terror” prison at Guantánamo Bay could find out who had been charged in the three versions of the military commissions that have been in existence at the prison (and in US law) since 2001. Please donate to support my work if you can, as I rely on your donations to support projects like this and the articles I write on a regular basis.

Of the 779 men and boys held by the US military at Guantánamo since it opened in January 2002, only 33 have ever been charged in the military commissions, although, crucially, in 15 of those cases the charges were subsequently dropped. 

Only 18 cases (involving, in other words, just 2.3% of the total number of prisoners held) have proceeded to plea deals, trials or pre-trial hearings, and, of those 18, only eleven convictions have been secured (two via trials, and nine via pleas deals), although three of those convictions were overturned on appeal, and in another case, all of the charges were overturned except one, which was dubiously upheld after a fractured ruling in which the judges were divided.

Six cases are ongoing — five in a seemingly endless “Groundhog Day” of pre-trial hearings that have been ongoing since 2012 — while a seventh case is in limbo, after the defendant in question was ruled “unfit for trial” by a DoD Sanity Board, which found him “psychotic” as a result of his torture in CIA “black sites.”

I covered the commissions’ early history in my book The Guantánamo Files, published in September 2007, and I have continued to write about them ever since, although I never, for a moment, found that they had established any kind of legitimacy, compared to the federal courts, which have had a consistent track record of successfully prosecuting cases related to terrorism throughout the entire period that the parallel system of military commissions has existed at Guantánamo. As of February 2018, as Human Rights First explained in a briefing at the time, “Federal civilian criminal courts have convicted more than 660 individuals on terrorism-related charges since 9/11.”

Below is a short history of the post-9/11 commissions followed by the list of the 33 prisoners who have been charged, in all three versions of the commissions — those established in 2001, 2006 and 2009. A very helpful resource, as of February 2025, is the official Military Commissions website, which maintains detailed records of all of the proceedings throughout the commissions’ long, fraught and hideously expensive history. For coverage of the ongoing proceedings, check out John Ryan’s detailed coverage from the Guantánamo courtroom on Lawdragon, and also Gitmo Watch on X.

A brief history of the chaotic military commissions at Guantánamo

The military commissions were dragged out of the history books by Dick Cheney on November 13, 2001, when a Military Order authorizing the creation of the commissions was stealthily issued with almost no oversight, as I explained in an article in June 2007, while the Washington Post was publishing a major series on Cheney by Barton Gellman (the author of Angler, a subsequent book about Cheney) and Jo Becker. Alarmingly, as I explained in that article, the order “stripped foreign terror suspects of access to any courts, authorized their indefinite imprisonment without charge, and also authorized the creation of ‘Military Commissions,’ before which they could be tried using secret evidence,” including evidence derived through the use of torture.

Cheney’s military commissions, which involved various chaotic pre-trial hearings but no trials, lasted until June 29, 2006, when, in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, a challenge brought by one of the ten men charged (Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni who had taken a paid job as one of Osama bin Laden’s drivers), the Supreme Court ruled that the commission system lacked “the power to proceed because its structures and procedures violate both the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the four Geneva Conventions signed in 1949.” 

Almost immediately, however, the Bush administration responded by negotiating with Congress for a new version of the commissions to be launched, and the result was the Military Commissions Act of 2006. Between February 2007 and December 2008, 27 prisoners were charged in the military commissions (including nine of the ten men previously charged), although many of those charges were subsequently dropped, and only three cases went to trial — David Hicks in March 2007, Salim Hamdan in July 2008, and Ali Hamza al-Bahlul in October 2008. For a brief rundown of most of these stories, see my article from November 2008, 20 Reasons To Shut Down The Guantánamo Trials.

When President Obama took office in January 2009, he initially suspended the commissions, but in a speech in May 2009 he announced that they were back on the table. He then worked with Congress to revive them, and the result was the Military Commissions Act of 2009. According to an announcement by Attorney General Eric Holder in November 2009, there were supposed to be two types of trials under the Obama administration — in federal court, for the five men accused of involvement in the 9/11 attacks, as well as in the military commissions. 

However, when the administration faced criticism for planning to hold the 9/11 trial in New York, President Obama dropped the plans, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-defendants (all accused of involvement the 9/11 attacks) were once more charged in the military commissions. As with Bush’s military commissions, Obama’s version remained plagued with problems. Senior Obama administration officials had told Congress that certain charges designated as war crimes in the MCA of 2006, and to be included in the 2009 version — providing material support for terrorism, and, possibly, conspiracy — were not regarded as war crimes, and that any convictions would probably be overturned on appeal. 

Congress failed to take the advice on board, but this was indeed what happened in October 2012, when Salim Hamdan’s conviction was overturned, with Noor Uthman Muhammad’s conviction overturned in January 2015, and David Hicks’ conviction overturned in January 2015. In January 2013, the conviction of Ali Hamza al-Bahlul was also overturned, in a ruling that was confirmed in July 2014 and again in June 2015, although, in October 2016, in a fractured ruling, his conspiracy conviction was reinstated. 

The result of all of the above was that, in 2013, the US military eventually conceded that the total number of prisoners who would face military commission trials was unlikely to exceed 20. Nearly 12 years since that concession was first made, it seems unlikely that any more than the 18 men whose cases have proceeded to plea deals, trials and pre-trial hearings will ever be charged. With the costs over the last 23 years running into billions of dollars, and with the most high-profile cases still mired in controversy, it’s difficult to imagine how anyone could realistically argue that the commissions have been anything other than an unmitigated failure, and a colossal national embarrassment.

Military Commissions under President Bush, as authorized by Military Order No. 1 (2001-2006)

1. David Hicks (ISN 002, Australia) was charged with conspiracy, attempted murder by an “unprivileged belligerent” and aiding the enemy on June 10, 2004. His intended trial was delayed on several occasions, firstly on November 9, 2004, after Judge James Robertson, in the District Court in Washington D.C., ruled that the US could not hold a military commission unless it was first shown that the detainee was not a prisoner of war. That ruling was unanimously reversed by a three-judge panel in the court of appeals (the D.C. Circuit Court) on July 15, 2005, led by Judge A. Raymond Randolph, but Hicks’ trial was delayed again because, on November 7, 2005, the the Supreme Court issued a writ of certiorari to hear the case. On November 15, District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly stayed the proceeding against Hicks until the Supreme Court issued its ruling (the ruling in June 2006 that brought this version of the commissions to an end).

2. Ibrahim al-Qosi (ISN 054, Sudan), who had worked with al-Qaeda, was charged with conspiracy on June 29, 2004. Because of the rulings outlined above, al-Qosi’s case was stayed twice, on November 9, 2004 and November 7, 2005, before the first version of the commissions was struck down by the Supreme Court in June 2006.

3. Ali Hamza al-Bahlul (ISN 039, Yemen), who had also worked with al-Qaeda, was charged with conspiracy on June 29, 2004. For his struggle to represent himself — and the ethical problem this caused to the lawyer assigned to represent him, Army Maj. Thomas Fleener — see “The Defense Will Not Rest,” an article in GQ in July 2007, which I wrote about here.

4. Salim Hamdan (ISN 149, Yemen), who had worked as a driver for Osama bin Laden, was charged with conspiracy on July 13, 2004. He was represented by Neal Katyal of Georgetown University Law Center and Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, with support from the Seattle law firm Perkins Coie. See “Taking on Guantánamo,” a profile of Swift from Vanity Fair in 2007.

5. Omar Khadr (ISN 766, Canada), who was just 15 years old when he was seized, heavily wounded, after a firefight in Afghanistan, was charged with murder by an unprivileged belligerent, attempted murder by an unprivileged belligerent, aiding the enemy and conspiracy on November 4, 2005, even though, as a juvenile at the time of his capture, he should never have been charged with a crime at all, and there was never any firm evidence that he had, as alleged, killed a US soldier in the firefight. He attended pre-trial hearings in the second week of January 2006, prior to the first version of the commissions being scrapped. In March, after all the prisoners facing commissions were placed in solitary confinement, Khadr wrote to the court to complain, “Excuse me Mr. Judge … I’m being punished for exercising my right and being co-operative in participating in this military commission. For that, I say with my respect to you and everybody else here, that I’m boycotting these procedures until I be treated humanely and fair.”

6. Ghassan al-Sharbi (also identified as Abdullah al-Sharbi) (ISN 682, Saudi Arabia) was charged with conspiracy, as part of an alleged al-Qaeda bomb-making cell, on November 4, 2005, with the two men listed below. For al-Sharbi’s struggle to represent himself — and the ethical problem this caused to the lawyer assigned to represent him, Navy Lt. William Kuebler — see “The Defense Will Not Rest,” an article in GQ in July 2007, which I wrote about here.

7. Sufyian Barhoumi (ISN 694, Algeria) was charged with conspiracy, as part of an alleged al-Qaeda bomb-making cell, on November 4, 2005.

8. Jabran al-Qahtani (ISN 696, Saudi Arabia) was charged with conspiracy, as part of an alleged al-Qaeda bomb-making cell, on November 4, 2005.

9. Binyam Mohamed (identified by the US as Binyam Muhammad) (ISN 1458, Ethiopia-UK) was charged with conspiracy, as part of an alleged “dirty bomb” plot,  on November 4, 2005. At a hearing on April 6, 2006, Mohamed insisted on representing himself, and held up a sign in court — for the benefit of the watching world — which read, “con mission.” He stated, “This is not a commission, it’s a con mission. It’s a mission to con the world.”

10. Abdul Zahir (ISN 753, Afghanistan) was charged with conspiracy, aiding the enemy and attacking civilians in Afghanistan on January 20, 2006. He is the only one of the ten not to be charged again when the military commissions were revived by Congress in the Military Commissions Act of 2006. In April 2013, he was one of 71 prisoners recommended for a Periodic Review Board, which took place in June 2016, and in July 2016 he was approved for release. In January 2017, he was released from Guantánamo and resettled in Oman, and he was finally repatriated to Afghanistan in February 2024.

Military Commissions under President Bush, as authorized by the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (2006-2008)

1. David Hicks (ISN 002, Australia) was charged for a second time, with providing material support for terrorism, on February 2, 2007, and reached a plea deal on March 26, 2007 after pleading guilty, as the Military Commissions website explains, to “providing material support for terrorism by training at al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan and taking up arms against coalition forces during Operation Enduring Freedom.” He was given a seven-year sentence on March 31, 2007, of which all but nine months was suspended, and returned to Australia on May 20, 2007, where he was imprisoned. He was released on December 26, 2007. In November 2013, Hicks appealed his conviction, and his conviction was overturned on February 18, 2015 by the Court of Military Commissions Review, as I reported for Al-Jazeera. It was the third conviction to be overturned (see Salim Hamdan below, and, under Obama, Noor Uthman Muhammed), joining the partial overturning of the conviction of Ali Hamza al-Bahlul.

2. Salim Hamdan (ISN 149, Yemen) was charged for a second time, with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism, on April 5, 2007. He was convicted of providing material support for terrorism, but acquitted of conspiracy by the military jury, on August 6, 2008, after a two-week trial. He was given a sentence of five and a half years, but the judge, Keith Allred, allowed for time served since he was first charged (61 months), meaning that he had just five months to serve. He was repatriated to Yemen on November 26, 2008, where he was imprisoned until December 27, 2008, when he was released. His conviction was overturned by the court of appeals in Washington D.C. (the D.C. Circuit Court) on October 16, 2012, the first of three rulings overturning convictions, and the partial overturning of Ali Hamza al-Bahlul’s conviction (see below), which made it impossible for most of the planned prosecutions at Guantánamo, involving material support for terrorism — and in some cases conspiracy — to proceed.

3. Omar Khadr (ISN 766, Canada) was charged for a second time, with murder in violation of the law of war, attempted murder in violation of the law of war, conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism and spying, on April 5, 2007. Pre-trial hearings took place from June 2007 until President Bush left office. See my articles here, here, here and here.

4. Mohamed Jawad (ISN 900, Afghanistan), a juvenile at the time of his capture, was charged with attempted murder in violation of the law of war, for allegedly throwing a grenade into a US military vehicle in Kabul in December 2002, on October 9, 2007. His prosecutor, Darrel Vandeveld, resigned on September 25, 2008, complaining that vital information was being withheld from the defense. In October 2008, his judge, Army Col. Stephen R.  Henley, determined that Jawad’s confessions about throwing the grenade, which he made to Afghan and US officials after his capture in December 2002, were inadmissible because they had been obtained through torture and intimidation. In July 2009, he had his habeas corpus petition granted by Judge Ellen Huvelle in the District Court in Washington D.C., and he was repatriated to Afghanistan on August 24, 2009 (also see here and here).

5. Ahmed al-Darbi (ISN 768, Saudi Arabia) was charged with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism (particularly in connection with the 2002 bombing of an oil tanker, the MV Limburg), on December 20, 2007. He was arraigned in April 2008, although he refused to attend the hearing. In September 2008, his military-appointed lawyer, Army Lt. Col. Bryan Broyles, resigned, complaining about the ethical problems of representing someone who did not wish to be represented (as al-Darbi didn’t), and explaining that al-Darbi never came to trust him because “the attorney-client relationship is close to impossible to establish” in a system in which a lawyer is imposed on a prisoner.

6. Ibrahim al-Qosi (ISN 054, Sudan) was charged for a second time, with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism, on February 8, 2008. In April 2008, he too boycotted his arraignment, telling the judge, “I do not recognize the justice or the lawfulness of this court,” and adding, “What is happening in your courts is in fact a sham, which aims solely that the cases move at the pace of a turtle in order to gain some time to keep us in these boxes without any human or legal rights.”

7. Ali Hamza al-Bahlul (ISN 039, Yemen) was charged for a second time, with conspiracy, soliciting others to commit various war crimes, and providing material support for terrorism, on February 8, 2008, and was convicted in November 2008 after a one-sided trial in which he refused to mount a defense, and given a life sentence. His conviction was overturned by the court of appeals in Washington D.C. (the D.C. Circuit Court) on January 25, 2013. The US government appealed, and see this article for the rather confusing outcome of the appeal on July 14, 2014, which, nevertheless, confirmed that al-Bahlul’s material support conviction was overturned, and also confirmed that his conviction for soliciting others to commit war crimes was overturned as well. As I described it, “on the third count on which he was initially convicted, conspiracy to commit war crimes, the D.C. Circuit Court rejected a constitutional challenge brought by al-Bahlul, but did so, as the National Law Journal explained, in ‘a fractured ruling that left unclear how future cases against terrorism suspects might proceed.'” In June 2015, the court confirmed its ruling, but then agreed to an en banc hearing, which took place on December 1, 2015. On October 20, 2016, by six judges to three, the court reinstated al-Bahlul’s conspiracy conviction.

8. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (ISN 10024, Pakistan-Kuwait), a “high-value detainee” held in CIA “black sites,” was charged in connection with the 9/11 attacks on February 11, 2008. See the 90-page charge sheet here for the charges against him and the four men below. Pre-trial hearings took place from June 2008 until President Bush left office. See here, here and here.

9. Ramzi bin al-Shibh (ISN 10013, Yemen), a “high-value detainee” held in CIA “black sites,” was charged in connection with the 9/11 attacks on February 11, 2008. Pre-trial hearings took place from June 2008 until President Bush left office. See here, here and here.

10. Mustafa al-Hawsawi (ISN 10011, Saudi Arabia), a “high-value detainee” held in CIA “black sites,” was charged in connection with the 9/11 attacks on February 11, 2008. Pre-trial hearings took place from June 2008 until President Bush left office. See here, here and here.

11. Walid bin Attash (ISN 10014, Saudi Arabia), a “high-value detainee” held in CIA “black sites,” was charged in connection with the 9/11 attacks on February 11, 2008. Pre-trial hearings took place from June 2008 until President Bush left office. See here, here and here.

12. Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali (aka Ammar al-Baluchi) (ISN 10018, Pakistan-Kuwait), a “high-value detainee” held in CIA “black sites,”  was charged in connection with the 9/11 attacks on February 11, 2008. Pre-trial hearings took place from June 2008 until President Bush left office. See here, here and here.

13. Mohammed al-Qahtani (ISN 063, Saudi Arabia), alleged to have been the intended 20th hijacker on 9/11, was charged in connection with the 9/11 attacks on February 11, 2008, but the charges were dropped on May 12, 2008 after the commissions’ convening authority, Susan Crawford, concluded that he had been tortured at Guantánamo. “We tortured Qahtani. His treatment met the legal definition of torture,” she told Bob Woodward of the Washington Post in January 2009. Al-Qahtani went before a Periodic Review Board in June 2016, which approved his ongoing imprisonment in July 2016. Al-Qahtani had indeed been subjected to a specific torture program in 2002-03, even though he had severe mental health problems (including schizophrenia) that predated his arrival at Guantánamo, and for many years his lawyers sought to secure his release via the US courts. In May 2021, however, he had another PRB hearing, and on February 4, 2022 he was finally approved for release, and was returned to Saudi Arabia in March 2022.

14. Mohammed Kamin (ISN 1045, Afghanistan) was charged with a single count of providing material support to terrorism on March 12, 2008, although the Obama administration dropped the charges against him on December 11, 2009. At the time, Pentagon officials said they would re-file charges against him, but it never happened. In June 2013, it was revealed that, in January 2010, President Obama’s Guantánamo Review Task Force had recommended him for ongoing detention without charge or trial, but instead he was put forward for a Periodic Review Board, which took place in August 2015. He was approved for release in October 2015, and was released to the United Arab Emirates in August 2016, although the promises that he, and the men released with him, would be helped to rebuild their lives turned out to be a lie, and they were imprisoned instead. He was eventually repatriated to Afghanistan in December 2019.

15. Ahmed Khalfan Ghalani (ISN 10012, Tanzania), a “high-value detainee” held in CIA “black sites,” was charged with conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism and various charges involving murder and terrorism, in connection with the 1998 African Embassy bombings on March 31, 2008, and was arraigned on October 22, 2008. Under Obama, however, he was moved to the US mainland (in May 2009) for a federal court trial that began in September 2010 and resulted in a conviction on a single charge of conspiracy and a life sentence in January 2011. Despite this, Republican lawmakers were so enraged that a Guantánamo prisoner had been brought to US mainland that they passed legislation preventing any prisoner being brought  to the US mainland for any reason, which has been maintained ever since.

16. Noor Uthman Muhammed (ISN 707, Sudan) was charged with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism on May 23, 2008, in connection with his involvement in a training camp in Afghanistan. The charges were dropped on October 21, 2008, after the powerful and principled resignation of prosecutor Darrel Vandeveld, but were reinstated on December 5, 2008.

17. Ghassan al-Sharbi (also identified as Abdullah al-Sharbi) (ISN 682, Saudi Arabia) was charged for a second time, with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism, on May 28, 2008, but the charges were dropped on October 21, 2008, after Darrel Vandeveld’s resignation. He was charged again on January 12, 2009, but those charges were dismissed on January 28, 2013. In April 2013, he was declared to be eligible for a Periodic Review Board, which took place in June 2016. He was recommended for ongoing imprisonment without charge or trial in July 2016. In August 2019, he boycotted his hearing, and his ongoing imprisonment was upheld. However, after his next review, in December 2021, the board approved his release in February 2022, and he was released in March 2023.

18. Sufyian Barhoumi (ISN 694, Algeria) was charged for a second time, with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism, on May 28, 2008, but the charges were dropped on October 21, 2008, after Darrel Vandeveld’s resignation. He was charged again on January 12, 2009, but those charges were dismissed on January 28, 2013. In July 2013, Barhoumi sought to be charged and tried, in the hope of being released from Guantánamo — although prosecutors showed no willingness to prosecute him. Three months earlier, however, he had been made eligible for a Periodic Review Board, which took place in May 2016, and in August 2016 he was approved for release. He was finally released in April 2022.

19. Jabran al-Qahtani (ISN 696, Saudi Arabia) was charged for a second time, with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism, on May 28, 2008, but the charges were dropped on October 21, 2008, after Darrel Vandeveld’s resignation. He was charged again on January 12, 2009, but those charges were dismissed on January 28, 2013. In April 2013, he was declared to be eligible for a Periodic Review Board, which took place in May 2016. He was approved for release on November 21, 2016, with the possibility that he would face prosecution in Saudi Arabia, and was returned to Saudi Arabia in January 2017.

20. Binyam Mohamed (identified by the US as Binyam Muhammad) (ISN 1458, UK-Ethiopia) was charged for a second time on May 28, 2008, but the charges were dropped on October 21, 2008, after Darrel Vandeveld’s resignation. He was released to the UK in February 2009, primarily because his US-instigated torture in Morocco, which the British either knew about, or were negligent in not finding out about, had been exposed in the UK courts, and was causing a Transatlantic headache.

21. Mohammed Hashim (ISN 850, Afghanistan) was charged with providing material support for terrorism and spying on May 30, 2008, and the charges were approved by the convening authority on October 21, 2008. Referred on January 8, 2009, the charges were dismissed on May 20, 2009. On December 20, 2009, he was repatriated to Afghanistan. For more, see my article, “Afghan fantasist to face trial at Guantánamo,” written when he was initially charged.

22. Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri (ISN 10015, Saudi Arabia), a “high-value detainee” held in CIA “black sites,” was charged, with conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism and various charges involving murder and terrorism, for his alleged involvement in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole on June 30, 2008, and the charges were referred to the convening authority on December 19, 2008.

23. Abdul Ghani (ISN 934, Afghanistan) was charged, with conspiracy, attempted murder in violation of the law of war, and providing material support for terrorism  on July 28, 2008, but the charges were dropped on December 19, 2008. In September 2012, it was revealed by the Justice Department that he had been cleared for release by President Obama’s Guantánamo Review Task Force in January 2010, and in December 2014 he was freed. For more, see, “Close Guantánamo: Abdul Ghani, An Insignificant Afghan Villager Held for Nine Years.”

24. Obaidullah (ISN 762, Afghanistan) was charged with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism on September 9, 2008. For more, see my article, “Guantánamo trials: another insignificant Afghan charged,” written when he was initially charged.

25. Fayiz al-Kandari (described as Faiz al-Kandari) (ISN 552, Kuwait) was charged with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism on October 21, 2008, with additional charges added on December 3, 2008. The charges were dropped on June 29, 2012 by the convening authority, Retired Vice Admiral Bruce MacDonald. In April 2013, he was declared to be eligible for a Periodic Review Board, and after being approved for ongoing imprisonment after a review in June 2014, he was approved for release in September 2015 after a second review in July 2015, and was freed in January 2016.

26. Fouad al-Rabiah (described as Fouad al-Rabia) (ISN 551, Kuwait) was charged with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism on October 21, 2008. However, in September 2009, he had his habeas corpus petition granted in the District Court in Washington D.C. by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, which uncovered extraordinary evidence of how coerced confessions were extracted from him at Guantánamo. He was released in December 2009, after the charges against him were dropped.

27. Tarek El-Sawah (aka Tariq al-Sawah) (ISN 535, Egypt) was charged with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism on December 12, 2008. In April 2012, the charges against him were dropped on the advice of Michael C. Chapman, the legal advisor to the convening authority. In October 2013, I reported how his lawyers were seeking his release because he is physically and mentally ill. See, “Lawyers Seek Release from Guantánamo of Tariq Al-Sawah, an Egyptian Prisoner Who is Very Ill.” Six months earlier, however, he had been declared eligible for a Periodic Review Board, which took place in January 2015. He was approved for release in February 2015, and was freed in Bosnia in January 2016.

Military Commissions under President Obama, as authorized by the Military Commissions Act of 2009 (2009-January 2017)

1. Ibrahim al-Qosi (ISN 054, Sudan) had the announcement of his intended trial by military commission (for the third time) made by Attorney General Eric Holder on November 13, 2009. Al-Qosi accepted a plea deal on July 7, 2010, in which, in exchange for a guilty plea, he was to be held for just two more years instead of the 14-year sentence delivered by a military jury. He was repatriated to Sudan in July 2012. In April 2014, as Steve Vladeck described it for Just Security, the Court of Military Commission Review turned down a request on al-Qosi’s behalf, by his appointed appellate defense counsel, Navy Captain Mary McCormick, for “funding from the Department of Defense that would allow her to travel to Sudan with an interpreter to seek out and meet with Al Qosi so that she could consult with him, and he could make an informed decision on whether he wanted her to represent him and whether she should challenge his military commission conviction.” Furthermore, in May 2015, the D.C. Circuit Court dismissed an appeal submitted on al-Qosi’s behalf, “on the ground that his appointed appellate defense counsel, Navy Captain Mary McCormick, did not have al-Qosi’s permission to appeal the Court of Military Commission Review (CMCR)’s April 2014 decision, and so there was no case or controversy to review.” In December 2015, it was reported that he had appeared in a video released by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

2. Omar Khadr (ISN 766, Canada) had the announcement of his intended trial by military commission (for the third time) made by Attorney General Eric Holder on November 13, 2009. Khadr accepted a plea deal in October 2010, in which, in exchange for a guilty plea, he received an eight-year sentence (consisting of one more year at Guantánamo, followed by seven in Canada) instead of the 40-year sentence delivered by a military jury. He was repatriated to Canada in September 2012. In November 2013, his US lawyer, Sam Morison, announced that he was challenging his conviction, and Khadr’s own comments are here. In May 2015, he was finally released on bail in Canada, to resume his life.

3. Noor Uthman Muhammed (ISN 707, Sudan) had the announcement of his intended trial by military commission (for the second time) made by Attorney General Eric Holder on November 13, 2009. Muhammed accepted a plea deal in February 2011, in which, in exchange for a guilty plea, he received a sentence of two years and ten months. He was repatriated to Sudan in December 2013. On January 9, 2015, he was the third prisoner to have his conviction overturned, when, as the Pentagon reported, “the convening authority for military commissions disapproved the findings and sentence, and dismissed the charges in the case of United States v. Noor Uthman Muhammed.” The Pentagon’s press release also stated, “Subsequent to his commission proceedings, decisions by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in separate commissions cases established that it was legal error to try the offense of providing material support for terrorism before a military commission. The decisions of the D.C. Circuit are binding on commissions cases and the convening authority’s action to disapprove the findings and sentence in Muhammed’s case is required in the interests of justice and under the rule of law.”

4. Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri (ISN 10015, Saudi Arabia) had the announcement of his intended trial by military commission (for the second time) made by Attorney General Eric Holder on November 13, 2009. For my reports on the stumbling progress of his pre-trial hearings, see here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. And see here for the European Court of Human Rights’ ruling in July 2014 condemning the US for implementing a program of extraordinary rendition and torture, and Poland for hosting a CIA “black site” from 2002 to 2003, and here for the order for Poland to pay €100,000 in damages to al-Nashiri. Also see here.

5. Ahmed al-Darbi (ISN 768, Saudi Arabia) had the announcement of his intended trial by military commission (for the second time) made by Attorney General Eric Holder on November 13, 2009. Al-Darbi accepted a plea deal on February 20, 2014, in which, in exchange for a guilty plea, it was announced that he would “spend at least three and a half more years at Guantánamo before he is sentenced,” and would then probably be transferred to Saudi Arabia to serve out the remainder of a sentence that was expected to be between nine to 15 years, “depending on his behavior in custody,” as the New York Times described it. Also see here.

6. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (ISN 10024, Pakistan-Kuwait) had the announcement of his intended federal court trial in New York made by Attorney General Eric Holder on November 13, 2009. However, under pressure from critics, President Obama dropped the plan, and KSM and his four co-defendants (all accused of involvement the 9/11 attacks) were once more charged in the military commissions. For more, see here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

7. Ramzi bin al-Shibh (ISN 10013, Yemen) had the announcement of his intended federal court trial in New York made by Attorney General Eric Holder on November 13, 2009. However, under pressure from critics, President Obama dropped the plan, and the five 9/11 co-defendants (all accused of involvement the 9/11 attacks) were once more charged in the military commissions. For more, see here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

8. Mustafa al-Hawsawi (ISN 10011, Saudi Arabia) had the announcement of his intended federal court trial in New York made by Attorney General Eric Holder on November 13, 2009. However, under pressure from critics, President Obama dropped the plan, and the five 9/11 co-defendants (all accused of involvement the 9/11 attacks) were once more charged in the military commissions. For more, see here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

9. Walid bin Attash (ISN 10014, Saudi Arabia) had the announcement of his intended federal court trial in New York made by Attorney General Eric Holder on November 13, 2009. However, under pressure from critics, President Obama dropped the plan, and the five 9/11 co-defendants (all accused of involvement the 9/11 attacks) were once more charged in the military commissions. For more, see here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

10. Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali (aka Ammar al-Baluchi) (ISN 10018, Pakistan-Kuwait) had the announcement of his intended federal court trial in New York made by Attorney General Eric Holder on November 13, 2009. However, under pressure from critics, President Obama dropped the plan, and the five 9/11 co-defendants (all accused of involvement the 9/11 attacks) were once more charged in the military commissions. For more, see here, here, here, here, here and here.

11. Obaidullah (ISN 762, Afghanistan) had the announcement of his intended trial by military commission (for the second time) made on January 6, 2010. In June 2011, however, the charges were dropped. In April 2013, he was declared to be eligible for a Periodic Review Board, which took place in April 2016. In May 2016, he was approved for release, and he was released to the United Arab Emirates in August 2016. although the promises that he, and the men released with him, would be helped to rebuild their lives turned out to be a lie, and they were imprisoned instead. He was eventually repatriated to Afghanistan in December 2019.

12. Majid Khan (ISN 10020, Pakistan), a “high-value detainee” held in CIA “black sites,” was charged with conspiracy, murder in violation of the laws of war, material support for terrorism and other charges on February 14, 2012, in connection with his alleged role as a courier for Al-Qaeda. He accepted a plea deal on February 29, 2012, in which, in exchange for a guilty plea and an agreement to cooperate with prosecutors in the 9/11 trial, he would apparently receive a 19-year sentence, although that, it was stated at the time, would not be delivered until four years after his trial. Four years came and went, however, because of the glacial slowness of pre-trial hearings for the 9/11 trial, and in September 2016, at a hearing to arrange for Khan to drop the no longer applicable material support plea in his plea deal, he was told he would have to wait for sentencing for another three years. For my report on this, see here.

13. Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi (ISN 10029, Iraq), a military commander in Afghanistan, was charged with war crimes relating to protected property and insurgent bombings on June 7, 2013. He was one of the last prisoners to arrive at Guantánamo, and it was announced on February 14, 2014 that a charge of conspiracy had been added to his charge sheet. Also see here, here and here.

Military Commissions under Donald Trump and President Biden, as authorized by the Military Commissions Act of 2009 (2017-January 2025)

1. Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri (ISN 10015, Saudi Arabia) As the military commissions stumbled on under Donald Trump, scandal engulfed the case of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, as I reported in March 2018, in an article appropriately entitled, The Complete Collapse of Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri’s Military Commission Trial at Guantánamo. On May 31, 2018, there was a further blow for the US government (and the government of Romania), when the European Court of Human Rights found that al-Nashiri’s imprisonment in a CIA “black site” in Romania breached key articles of the European Convention on Human Rights, and ordered the Romanian government to pay him €100,000 in damages. By 2021, the focus of al-Nashiri’s case had shifted to the viability of statements that he made to FBI “clean teams” interrogating him at Guantánamo after his arrival from the CIA “black sites” in September 2006. In August 2023, this ongoing dispute reached a devastating conclusion for the government, as I explained in an article entitled, Trial Judge Destroys Guantánamo’s Military Commissions, Rules That “Clean Team” Interrogations Cannot Undo the Effects of Torture. Earlier, in June 2023, another blow was delivered to the US government when the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention condemned his imprisonment as arbitrary and called for his release.

2. Ahmed al-Darbi (ISN 768, Saudi Arabia) After accepting a plea deal in February 2014, al-Darbi testified against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri in August 2017, fulfilling the requirement of his plea deal, and was sentenced on October 18, 2017, receiving a 13-year sentence that began at the time of his plea deal, paving the way for his repatriation to Saudi Arabia, which was meant to take place on February 20, 2018, with his sentence in Saudi Arabia ending in February 2027. In the end, ten weeks late, the Trump administration transferred him to ongoing custody in Saudi Arabia on May 2, 2018, in what was, shamefully, the only release of a prisoner during Trump’s four years in office.

3. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (ISN 10024, Pakistan-Kuwait) Under Donald Trump and President Biden, pre-trial hearings continued in the cases of the five men accused of involvement in the 9/11 attacks, although scandal dogged them as it did in the case of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. In August 2018, the judge since the men were first arraigned in the revived military commissions in May 2012, Army Col. James L. Pohl, 67, abruptly announced his resignation, and, as a parting shot, ruled that statements made by the five men to FBI “clean teams” after their arrival from the CIA “black sites” in September 2006 were inadmissible. These statements were subsequently reinstated by Marine Col. Keith A. Parrella, who briefly took over from Col. Pohl, but wrangling over their viability has continued ever since. In 2023, after convicted Al-Qaeda courier Majid Khan was released via a plea deal, having been allowed to deliver a devastating statement about his torture in CIA “black sites”, and at Guantánamo, which shocked his military jury to such an extent that seven of the eight jury members urged clemency for him, prosecutors recognized that a successful prosecution in the 9/11 trial was unviable. As a result, they began negotiations with the defense teams, and the convening authority, Brig. Gen. Susan Escallier, for plea deals, in which, with the death penalty taken off the table, they would be imprisoned for life at Guantánamo, having provided a full and frank account of their actions. The plea deals were successfully concluded at the end of July 2024, but the defense secretary Lloyd Austin then tried to revoke them, even though it seemed clear that he had no authority to do so. Although the military judge overruled him, along with the military commission review court, the administration then appealed in federal court, leaving the plea deals in limbo as they left office.

4. Ramzi bin al-Shibh (ISN 10013, Yemen) Ever since the 9/11 co-accused were charged under Obama’s revived military commissions in May 2011, the state of Ramzi bin al-Shibh’s mental health had alarmed his defense team, who had argued in vain for his mental competence to be evaluated. It was not, however, until April 2023 that the current trial judge, Air Force Col. Matthew McCall, who took the job in July 2019, ordered an inquiry into his mental capacity under Rule 706 of the Manual for Military Commissions, which was established as part of the Military Commissions Act of 2009. On August 24, the DoD Sanity Board, which is part of the DoD’s Defense Health Agency Center for Forensic Behavioral Sciences, based in Bethesda, Maryland, found that he presented with PTSD with secondary psychotic features, based on underlying PTSD with “Delusional Disorder, Persecutory Type,” and on September 22 Judge McCall ruled that he was “unfit for trial”, because, as the Associated Press described it, a medical panel found that “torture left him psychotic” — or “lastingly psychotic,” as the article’s opening line stated. The decision, which led to his removal from the 9/11 case, has left him in a legal limbo that has not been adequately addressed ever since.

5. Mustafa al-Hawsawi (ISN 10011, Saudi Arabia) Along with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Walid Bin Attash, al-Hawsawi, whose brutal treatment in the CIA “black sites”, including anal rape, has left him with serious medical problems, agreed to the plea deals that were successfully concluded at the end of July 2024, but which defense secretary Lloyd Austin then tried to revoke.

6. Walid bin Attash (ISN 10014, Saudi Arabia) Along with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, Bin Attash agreed to the plea deals that were successfully concluded at the end of July 2024, but which defense secretary Lloyd Austin then tried to revoke.

7. Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali (aka Ammar al-Baluchi) (ISN 10018, Pakistan-Kuwait) In January 2018, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued an opinion in al-Baluchi’s case, which I wrote about here, finding that his detention was arbitrary, and also reiterating previous findings that its “jurisprudence has consistently determined that prolonged and indefinite detention at Guantánamo Bay is arbitrary”, and reminding the US government that it had first “found that Mr. al Baluchi and 25 other individuals were arbitrarily deprived of their liberty under the Central Intelligence Agency rendition programme”, just five days before their transfer to Guantánamo in September 2006. Al-Baluchi has a tenacious defense team, and in March 2022, as I explained in an article in 2023, they “secured access to a 2018 report by the CIA Inspector General, which was previously hidden from them, and in which, as the Guardian described the report’s conclusions, al-Baluchi was, while naked, ‘used as a living prop to teach trainee interrogators, who lined up to take turns at knocking his head against a plywood wall, leaving him with brain damage.’” More recently, he has been found to be suffering from a tumor on his spine, and, as his lead attorney, James Connell, explained to me when we met in 2023, he “appear[ed] to be an old man, physically and mentally”, even though he was only 45 years old at the time. Al-Baluchi wasn’t involved in the plea deals that were agreed last year, although his attorneys have stressed that negotiations remain ongoing. Meanwhile, at the most recent hearings in his case, arguments were still ongoing regarding whether or not statements he made at Guantánamo after his arrival there were made voluntarily.

8. Majid Khan (ISN 10020, Pakistan) When Majid Khan’s sentencing finally came around in October 2021, following his cooperation with prosecutors regarding evidence for the 9/11 trial, he was allowed to make a public statement, in which he explained how he had been recruited as an Al-Qaeda courier at a low point in his life, following the death of his mother, and had been remorseful and cooperative from the time of his capture, in March 2003, but how he had, nevertheless been subjected to persistent and horrendous torture and isolation, particularly in the CIA “black sites”, but also at Guantánamo. His testimony (available here and here) was so harrowing that seven of his eight military jurors called for clemency, describing his torture as akin to that “performed by the most abusive regimes in modern history.” Khan received a 26-year sentence, but that was capped at ten years, meaning that he should have been freed on March 1, 2022, although shamefully, despite having had ten years to prepare for it, no third country was found by the US government that was prepared to offer him a new home (because it was unsafe for him to be returned to Pakistan) until February 2023, when he was resettled in Belize.

9. Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi (ISN 10029, Iraq) In June 2002, al-Iraqi, whose real name is Nashwan al-Tamir, agreed to a plea deal in his military commission proceedings that involved war crimes relating to attacks on protected property and insurgent bombings, although it was largely overshadowed by his status as Guantánamo’s most severely disabled prisoner, suffering from a degenerative spinal disease that seven surgical operations in Guantánamo’s inadequate hospital facilities have been unable to adequately address. In January 2023, various UN Special Rapporteurs expressed grave concerns about the continued deterioration in his physical health, and his mental health, but, when he was sentenced in June 2024, the military jury gave him a 30-year sentence. That was reduced to ten years under the terms of the plea deal, although that still meant that he was not scheduled to be freed until June 2032. In Biden’s dying days, the intervention of a federal court judge was required to prevent a cynical effort by the administration to send him to Iraq for ongoing imprisonment, even though Iraq was not regarded as a safe destination for him, and, especially, because there was no guarantee that, even if he was safe from harm, the Iraqi authorities would be able to provide him with the lifelong medical care that he requires. 

10. Riduan Isamuddin (aka Hambali) (ISN 10019, Indonesia) At the very end of Donald Trump’s first presidency, Isamuddin (aka Hambali, and aka Encep Nurjaman), identified as the former military leader of the Indonesian terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiyah, and two alleged accomplices, Mohammed Farik Bin Amin and Mohammed Bin Lep, were charged with war crimes including “conspiracy, murder, attempted murder, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, terrorism, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects [and] destruction of property”, relating to “the bombing of nightclubs in Bali, Indonesia in 2002 and the bombing of a J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2003.” The charges were announced on January 21, 2021, President Biden’s second day in office. All three men had arrived at Guantánamo from CIA “black sites” in September 2006, and had been held ever since as “high-value detainees”, but without ever being charged or tried. They were recommended for prosecution in 2010, but were then shunted into the Periodic Review Board administrative process. Hambali’s initial review took place in August 2016, but he was recommended for ongoing imprisonment without charge or trial the following month. In 2019, when their next review came around, all three men boycotted their hearings, having concluded that, under Donald Trump, they had become pointless, as no one was being approved for release. Despite being charged, no trial date has been announced, even after his alleged accomplices had their cases severed from his in 2023, and agreed to plea deals in January 2024, which involved them providing testimony for his proposed trial. On January 21, 2025, it was reported that the Indonesian government was ”exploring ways to repatriate” him.

11. Mohammed Farik Bin Amin (ISN 10021, Malaysia) Bin Amin was charged as President Biden took over from Donald Trump in January 2021, along with Riduan Isamuddin (aka Hambali) and Mohammed Bin Lep, as an alleged accomplice of Isamuddin’s in the Bali and Jakarta bombings in 2002 and 2003. All three men had arrived at Guantánamo from CIA “black sites” in September 2006, and had been held ever since as “high-value detainees”, but without ever being charged or tried. They were recommended for prosecution in 2010, but were then shunted into the Periodic Review Board administrative process. His initial review took place in August 2016, but he was recommended for ongoing imprisonment without charge or trial the following month. In 2019, when their next review came around, all three men boycotted their hearings, having concluded that, under Donald Trump, they had become pointless, as no one was being approved for release. Over two and a half years after he was charged, as the Military Commissions website explains, “Severance of the trial of the charges referred against Mr. Bin Amin from that of his co-accused was effectuated on August 29, 2023”, and in January 2024 he and Bin Lep agreed to plea deals, in which, having confessed to many of the crimes of which they were accused, and having also agreed to provide testimony for Isamuddin’s proposed trial, they were given 23-year sentences by the military jury, capped at six years via the plea deal, and with some suggestion that they might be returned to Malaysia before that time, to serve the rest of their terms in prison or under house arrest. This was indeed what happened, and they were repatriated to Malaysia on December 18, 2024.

12. Mohammed Bin Lep (ISN 10022, Malaysia) Bin Lep was charged as President Biden took over from Donald Trump in January 2021, along with Riduan Isamuddin (aka Hambali) and Mohammed Farik Bin Amin, as an alleged accomplice of Isamuddin’s in the Bali and Jakarta bombings in 2002 and 2003. His initial review took place in August 2016, but he was recommended for ongoing imprisonment without charge or trial the following month. In 2019, when their next review came around, all three men boycotted their hearings, having concluded that, under Donald Trump, they had become pointless, as no one was being approved for release. Over two and a half years after he was charged, as the Military Commissions website explains, “Severance of the trial of the charges referred against Mr. Bin Lep from that of Mr. Nurjaman was effectuated on October 3, 2023”, and in January 2024 he and Bin Amin agreed to plea deals, in which, having confessed to many of the crimes of which they were accused, and having also agreed to provide testimony for Isamuddin’s proposed trial, they were given 23-year sentences by the military jury, capped at six years via the plea deal, and with some suggestion that they might be returned to Malaysia before that time, to serve the rest of their terms in prison or under house arrest. This was indeed what happened, and they were repatriated to Malaysia on December 18, 2024.

Andy Worthington is a freelance investigative journalist, activist, author, photographer and film-maker. He is the co-founder of the “Close Guantánamo” campaign, and the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. He is also the co-director (with Polly Nash) of the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (available on DVD here — or here for the US).

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