SANA'A // Naser Ahmed al Bahri, a former bodyguard of Osama bin Laden, said the military tribunal that convicted his brother-in-law, Salim Hamdan, a driver for the al Qa'eda chief, was unfair and accused the United States of targeting Yemenis. "The tribunal is illegal. It is completely wrong as Salim is not a member of al Qa'eda. He was just an ordinary paid driver for Sheikh Osama. He was not a fighter at all," Mr Bahri said in an exclusive interview with The National.
A jury of six US military officers convicted Hamdan on Wednesday of supporting terrorism, but cleared him of conspiracy charges in the first war crimes trial at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. He was sentenced on Thursday to five and a half years in jail, but, because of the time he has already spent in detention, will only have another five months to serve. Mr Bahri said Hamdan, who is originally from the eastern province of Hadramut in Yemen, phoned his family three days before his conviction.
"Hamdan spoke to his family three days before the oppressive verdict and he was not worried at all. His family members, including his wife and two daughters are, of course, outraged, but have a strong faith in Allah. It was an accepted verdict," he said. A devout Muslim and a veteran of wars in Bosnia and Somalia, Mr Bahri served as bin Laden's bodyguard between 1997 and 2000. He was imprisoned after the USS Cole bombing off the Aden coast in Oct 2000. He was interviewed by the FBI and was later released after renouncing violence.
Mr Bahri said he was the one who recruited Hamdan to become bin Laden's driver when he met him by chance in Sana'a, Yemen's capital, in late 1996. "He [Salim] gave me a lift in his bus and I was impressed by the way he drives. I spoke to him about jihad and motivated him by lucrative payment," Mr Bahri said. He said Hamdan was not bin Laden's only driver and that he himself had driven for the al Qa'eda chief. When the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001, Hamdan travelled with his wife and daughters to Pakistan, but returned to Afghanistan because he owed someone money.
"He took his family and naively decided to go back and return the money he has for others. He was captured and sent to Guantanamo prison," Mr Bahri said. Mr Bahri, 35, said there were many Yemeni citizens in Guantanamo Bay. "The US keeps many Yemenis in this prison because it believes Yemenis are the pillar of al Qa'eda, serving as drivers and bodyguards and in other positions," he said. According to the National Organisation for Defending Human Rights (Hood), a local non-governmental organisation, there are now 104 Yemenis at Guantanamo.
Ahmed Arman, secretary for Hood, accused the Yemeni government of being indifferent to following up their release. "The government is not working enough to get them back. Many governments in the region got their citizens. Yemenis there are now the majority. At the same time, the US government was not able to prove their involvement in terrorist activities," Mr Arman said. The Yemeni government has said the US conditions for the release of prisoners clashes with the country's own legislation.
"The US is demanding guarantees from Yemen that freed detainees be placed under surveillance or jailed," said Abu Bakr al Qirbi, Yemen's foreign minister. He said the Yemen government agreed to put them on trial if the United States presented evidence of their guilt. The US Embassy in Sana'a, however, said the US government was negotiating with Yemen to find a solution to return the detainees. "The US government is in the process of negotiating with the Yemeni government to find a solution that will allow all detainees to be returned. In all cases, the United States government is looking for a way in which we can transfer detainees to their home countries in such a way where the threat they pose is mitigated or accounted for in some way," said Ryan Gliha, an embassy spokesman.
Mr Gliha said a delegation led by Tony Ricci, the state department's detainee co-ordinator, visited Yemen last month to discuss with the government ways to return detainees safely and securely to Yemen. According to Mr Arman, only 14 Yemenis were returned from Guantanamo between 2004 and 2007, including one dead prisoner. Some of those who returned got married and others are looking for jobs. He said those who returned still faced harassment in Yemen.
"They [returnees] are already under security surveillance; they have to go to the intelligence and sign every time and then and sometimes they are summoned whenever needed by the intelligence. However, the safety of the detainees is not the primary concern of the US for what the harassment they face in Yemen will not be worse that in Guantanamo," Mr Arman said. According to Mr Bahri, Hamdan complained of torture and insults from US investigators. He said the prison and its notoriety had increased the outrage against the United States.
"This prison [Guantanamo] has increased the public wrath in Yemen, Iraq and everywhere. The latest attacks on the US Embassy and Hunt Oil company housing complex are an evidence of this. The Americans now cannot identify themselves as US citizens," he said. @Email:malqadhi@thenational.ae