Amin al-Bakri is pictured above (left) prior to his abduction by U.S. agents and (right) after 6 years of imprisonment in U.S. custody—first at secret C.I.A. detention sites known for the use of torture in interrogations, and then at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, where physical and mental torture have been commonly documented. Since 2002, Amin was confined virtually incommunicado, without access to counsel and with little contact with his family, except through heavily censored letters, and later, through rare, monitored phone calls. In a cry for help, Amin’s father, Mohammed al-Bakri, wrote to President Obama, “These pictures show the heavy toll that Amin’s imprisonment has had on him.” No pictures of Amin were made available subsequent to the one taken above (right) in 2008.

Kidnapped, Tortured, and Indefinitely Imprisoned Without Charge

In 2002, Amin al-Bakri, a gem salesman with investments in shrimp farming, was on a five-day business trip to Thailand. After checking out of his hotel, Amin was headed to the airport to fly back to Yemen, eager to celebrate his 34th birthday with his wife and children, when unknown U.S. agents seized him. His wife and children had no idea what had happened to him until a Yemeni newspaper reported that he had been kidnapped by unknown American agents. All of the efforts by the al-Bakri family to find Amin were unsuccessful. They only learned that he was still alive when they received a postcard in his handwriting from the U.S. military prison in Bagram, Afghanistan, forwarded by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In the postcard, Amin asked family members to look after his two sons and young daughter.

During the month that U.S. agents seized Amin, two prisoners at Bagram were tortured to death by U.S. interrogators, and at least 84 others died as a result of abusive treatment in U.S. custody at various detention sites worldwide. Documented interrogation methods inflicted on prisoners at C.I.A. “black sites” and at Bagram have included beatings; electric shocks; prolonged suspension from the ceiling; stress positions; solitary confinement in “dog boxes”; sexual abuse and humiliation; starvation; freezing temperatures; water-boarding; simulated drowning; continual blaring of deafening music; intentional subjection to screams from neighboring prison cells; sleep deprivation; sensory deprivation; and mock executions.

Because Amin was held virtually incommunicado in Afghanistan without access to his attorneys, we cannot know for certain where he was detained between his abduction in 2002 and his eventual imprisonment at Bagram. We do know, however, that Amin was subjected to serious abuse resulting in injuries to his knees and back, and that he has since had unsuccessful surgery on one of his knees. Beyond knowledge of these disclosed injuries, his family can only speculate about what he has endured and is still enduring.

Despite these horrific circumstances, Amin chose to utilize his knowledge of English, French, Arabic, Dari, and Urdu to act as an interpreter between U.S. military authorities and other prisoners. His actions helped defuse and mediate disputes between these groups.

Amin was released from Bagram in August 2014, and has been reunited with his family in Yemen.

A Family’s Sorrow

Amin’s disappearance and subsequent imprisonment caused devastating pain for his entire family. As Amin’s father, Muhammed al-Bakri, has said, “My heart aches when I consider the terrible and degrading treatment he has been forced to endure.” Amin’s father worried for Amin’s children, explaining, “They’ve been robbed of the joy of their childhood. They know they’ve lost something." And he feared for Amin’s wife, who lived “as though half her soul is missing." The resulting prolonged stress caused health problems for both of Amin’s parents, because they had not seen their son for over ten years and did not know if they ever would again. In their efforts to win Amin’s release, the family has been grateful for the support of HOOD, a leading human rights organization in Yemen.