Maqaleh Pleadings

Overview

Fadi al-Maqaleh is a Yemeni citizen who was held in U.S. custody for approximately ten years. In late 2004 or early 2005, the U.S. Government secretly transferred Mr. al-Maqaleh from Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq to Bagram Prison in Afghanistan. At some point prior to his detention at Bagram and/or Abu Ghraib, he was also illegally taken to one or more or CIA “black sites”, where he was likely subjected to torture.

Throughout his decade-long detention, Mr. al-Maqaleh was held virtually incommunicado without charge or access to a court of law to challenge his detention. As a result, very little is known about when, where, or by whom Mr. al-Maqaleh was initially seized.

Mr. al-Maqaleh’s family first learned that he was in the custody of U.S. forces when they received a handwritten letter from him in 2004 via the International Committee of the Red Cross (“ICRC”). While imprisoned at Bagram, Mr. al-Maqaleh’s only contact with his family was through heavily redacted letters and brief telephone conversations that were closely monitored by the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government prevented Mr. al-Maqaleh from revealing the details of his seizure, sites of detention, or conditions of his confinement at Bagram. Mr. al-Maqaleh repeatedly requested to meet with counsel, but the U.S. Government denied him this essential right.

Pre-Bagram Sites of Detention

Mr. al-Maqaleh was held by U.S forces at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq prior to his transfer to Bagram. Before he arrived at Bagram, Mr. al-Maqaleh was illegally taken to one or more “black sites,” secret prisons run by or at the behest of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (“CIA”). At these sites, detainees have been denied all access to the outside world, including access to the ICRC, and have been subjected to harsh interrogation techniques that include or amount to torture.

Detention at Bagram Prison

Mr. al-Maqaleh’s family first learned that he was at Bagram in 2004, when Mr. al-Maqaleh’s father, Ahmad al-Maqaleh, received a handwritten letter via the ICRC. Ahmad al-Maqaleh subsequently received additional letters from his son, though they were heavily censored and redacted by the U.S. military. Many letters initially had “BT” written at the top of each page, indicating that they had been screened and processed by personnel at “Bagram Theater.”

From 2004 through 2009, Mr. al-Maqaleh was held at the Bagram Theater Internment Facility (“BTIF”). It is well documented that detainees at the BTIF were confined in squalid conditions and subjected to repeated physical and mental abuse, including being threatened with dogs, stripped and photographed in uncomfortable or obscene positions, and being placed in cages with hooks and hanging ropes from which they were blindfolded and hung for days. Two detainees were shackled to the ceiling for days, tortured, and then savagely beaten to death by U.S. interrogators.

In late 2009, Mr. al-Maqaleh was transferred to the adjacent Detention Facility in Parwan (“Parwan Facility”), where he remained until his release in August 2014. While the U.S. military has promoted the Parwan Facility as an improvement over Bagram Prison in terms of the physical living conditions, Mr. al-Maqaleh continued to be held there without charge, access to a court of law, or access to an attorney. Any communications he was permitted with his family were via letters and occasional telephone calls, which were strictly monitored by his captors. Under such circumstances, it was impossible to determine whether there has been any meaningful improvement in the conditions of Mr. al-Maqaleh’s confinement or treatment at Parwan.

Alleged Justification for Continued Detention

To date, the U.S. Government has neither brought charges against Mr. al-Maqaleh nor presented any evidence alleging that he engaged in hostilities against the U.S. or its allies. Rather, without citing any specific allegations against Mr. al-Maqaleh, the U.S. Government simply designated him an “unlawful enemy belligerent,” without legal due process. This designation formed the sole justification of the U.S. government for Mr. al-Maqaleh's continued detention.

Legal Proceedings in U.S. Courts

Because Mr. al-Maqaleh was being detained with virtually no communication to the outside world, his father authorized the International Justice Network (“IJN”) to act as his son’s attorneys. In September 2006, IJN filed a petition seeking a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of Mr. al-Maqaleh, which was the first legal case filed on behalf of a detainee at Bagram in U.S. courts. Mr. al-Maqaleh’s petition was assigned to Judge John D. Bates.

In his petition, Mr. al-Maqaleh alleged that he was being held without legal or factual justification. Rather than responding to Mr. al-Maqaleh’s claims, the U.S. government instead argued that Mr. al-Maqaleh had no right to challenge his detention in U.S. courts.

In April 2009, Judge Bates denied the U.S. Government’s motion to dismiss Mr. al-Maqaleh’s case, holding that the court had jurisdiction to hear his case as well as the cases of two other non-Afghan prisoners who had been transferred to Bagram by the United States from outside of Afghanistan. The court held that while the Military Commissions Act of 2006 purported to deprive the court of jurisdiction over habeas petitions filed on behalf of detainees held outside the United States, it was unconstitutional as applied to Mr. al-Maqaleh and two of the other detainees because they were non-Afghans transferred to Bagram from outside Afghanistan.

The U.S. government appealed the District Court’s ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and oral arguments were held in January 2010. In May 2010, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued its decision, reversing the lower court and siding instead with the U.S. government. Subsequently, the petitioners, citing new information and evidence about Bagram that had come to light since they argued the case six month prior, asked the panel to rehear and reconsider the case. In July 2010, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to rehear the case, but specified that petitioners could seek to raise the new evidence before the District Court.

On September 2, 2010, IJN sought to file in the District Court an amended habeas petition on behalf of Mr. al-Maqaleh, citing new evidence and facts learned since the case was originally filed four years prior. The amended petition included revelations that the Obama administration established another detention facility at Bagram for the sole purpose of holding and interrogating men seized illegally from third countries around the world indefinitely without charge. The U.S. government argued that Mr. al-Maqaleh should not be allowed to present the new evidence, and that the case should be dismissed.

On February 15, 2011, Judge Bates issued a ruling in favor of Mr. al-Maqaleh, allowing him to file his amended petition and to present additional facts and arguments regarding the Court's jurisdiction. However, after considering the amended petition, Judge Bates decided that the information presented in Mr. al-Maqaleh's amended petition did not undermine the rationale of the previous ruling by the District Court. Mr. al-Maqaleh's amended petition was dismissed on October 19, 2012.

On April 27, 2013, IJN appealed the District Court's ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and oral arguments were held in September 2013. On December 24, 2013, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed Mr. al-Maqaleh's case, again ruling that it had no jurisdiction to hear his claim. IJN sought to have Mr. al-Maqaleh's petition reheard by all the judges on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, but this request was denied.

On August 11, 2014, IJN filed a petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court, the highest court in the United States, requesting that the Court hear al-Maqaleh's case.