Idir was arrested on October 18, 2001, on suspicion of participating in a conspiracy to bomb the United States Embassy.

The detainee participated in military operations against the United States or its coalition partners: Washington, D.C.-based Judge Joyce Hens Green extensively quoted a transcript from Idir's Combatant Status Review Tribunal when she decided that the Guantanamo tribunals violated the US Constitution.

These hearings were designed to assess the threat a detainee might pose if released or transferred, and whether there were other factors that warranted his continued detention.

[12] On September 25, 2006, he testified before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee, expressing his concerns about the bill that was to become the Military Commissions Act.

Sullivan also reminded the Judiciary Committee that US District Court Judge Joyce Hens Green, who had been appointed to oversee the Guantanamo habeas cases following the Supreme Court's decision in Rasul, cited Mr. Idir's hearing as an example of the fundamental unfairness of the CSRT process.

It would have been hard even if I had done something wrong (but) it is much harder if one is totally innocent.On March 3, 2009, El Khabar reported that the Bush administration forced Idir and the other two men to sign undertakings that they would not sue the US government for their kidnapping, before they would be released.