Adel Fattough Ali al Gazzar

Adel Fattough Ali al Gazzar was one of the first prisoners to be transferred to Guantanamo Bay, and remains there today, despite interrogators telling him that on the strength of their evidence, he should have been the “first to leave” the prison.

His story offers a perfect demonstration of how America's system for apprehending suspected enemies in Afghanistan in 2001 was vulnerable to dishonesty and corruption, and has led to many innocent people spending years in prison without trial or charge.

Adel travelled to Pakistan in 2000 to undertake a religious mission to preach the Koran, akin to Mormon and Christian missionaries trying to spread the word of God.  In Pakistan, he began his work, leading a quiet, pious life, until the events of 9/11 sent shockwaves around the world. In the following weeks, he watched as Afghanistan was bombed and the Taliban was forced from power by the US. As thousands of Afghan refugees streamed towards the Pakistani border, he went to the area to see how he could help.

On the border, Adel signed up with the Red Crescent (the Muslim equivalent of the Red Cross) and volunteered to go into Afghanistan to help the refugees, an corageous act of charity that he considered a religious duty.

But his trip into Afghanistan was as disastrous as it was brief. Within two hours of crossing the border to a refugee camp, Adel had been hit by a US airstrike and was lying unconscious. He awoke to find himself in Pakistani custody, horribly injured and unsure of what was happening. His coat, which had contained his identification, passport and money, had gone.

He spent the next 25 days in Pakistani hospital before being told he was going to be moved to a bigger, better clinic. Instead, he found himself in US custody. He was then moved to a US prison in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where the routine included severe beatings, exposure to freezing temperatures, sleep deprivation for days on end, and the suspension of prisoners by their wrists.  Adel endured eleven days of this before being flown to Guantanamo Bay.

By the time he arrived in Cuba it was almost six weeks since he had sustained his injures. They had gone untreated in US military custody and as a result, he was infected with gangrene so severe that his left leg had to be amputated.

Adel has always cooperated with interrogators, and has been found to have no links to terrorism by Egyptian authorities who conducted their own investigation into his case.

Adel believes he was sold to the US military for a bounty by Pakistani officials who knew that he was innocent. Despite initially accusing him of being an 'enemy combatant,' the US authorities cleared him for release almost immediately thereafter.  

Adel is a trained accountant who is fluent in English, has a degree in Commerce and a master's in Economics.  He is anxious to be reunited with his family and live a quiet life.  Despite being told that he would be 'one of the first to leave' Guantanamo Bay, he remains in prison, the victim of a system of corruption and collusion that has cost him almost eight years of his life.