(born 8 November 1962) is a citizen of Libya who was held from June 2002 until March 2010 in the Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba because the United States classified him as an enemy combatant.
Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Abraham later submitted an affidavit to the United States Supreme Court about the flaws in the CSRT process, based in part on this case, for which he sat on the original tribunal.
On 23 March 2010, the United States government released Al Ghizzawi from Guantanamo, transferring him to the custody of the nation of Georgia.
Together with nearly 250 Libyan recruits, he was sent to the Kamaya Point Training Center in Bataan, Philippines, but the program failed and they returned to Libya.
The Center for Policy and Research at Seton Hall University School of Law has prepared numerous reports about the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, the detainees, and the operations.
[5] At the CSRT for al-Ghizzawi, "On 24 November 2004, a ... Tribunal [unanimously] determined, by a preponderance of the evidence, that Detainee #654 was not properly designated as an enemy combatant.
"[5] The transcripts of subsequent Administrative Review Board hearings show that al-Ghizzawi continued to deny involvement with al-Qaeda, and said he never fought in Afghanistan, nor against the Americans.
[2] By the summer of 2006, H. Candace Gorman began working as Al Ghizzawi's pro bono attorney, a connection made by the Center for Constitutional Rights.
On 23 June 2007, he submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court strongly criticizing the entire CSRT process and describing the one Combatant Status Review Tribunal on which he had served, which was that for detainee #654, or al-Ghizzawi.
[10] His affidavit is believed to have contributed to the Supreme Court's decision to accept the consolidated cases of Boumediene v. Bush and Al-Odah v. United States for its 2007-2008 docket.
H. Candace Gorman, Al Ghizzawi's attorney, said that Guantanamo authorities had told her in October 2006 that the detainee had hepatitis B and tuberculosis, the latter contracted at the camp.
[1][11] In December 2007, Gorman alleged that Al Ghizzawi "has not been treated for his hepatitis or tuberculosis and has developed a severe liver infection", and characterized him as "dying a slow and painful death".
[4] Beginning in early 2009, the Obama administration conducted reviews of all detainees held at Guantanamo with the goal of repatriating as many as possible or finding safe places for them, and closing the camps.