Sherif el Mashad

Sherif El Mashad was transferred from Kandahar to Guantanamo Bay in February 2002 and remained held there without charge for eight years until his release in February 2010. He was an upwardly mobile young business owner living in Italy when he was seized after crossing the border into Pakistan as he fled fighting in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Before his capture, Sherif had lived a happy life as a legal Italian resident for over four years. His dream was relatively simple: to support his family back home in Egypt, and live a quiet, compassionate life. It was a dream shattered by the events that followed 9/11.

In July 2001, before anyone could have envisaged the events in New York later that year would change the world, Sherif left his home in Como to travel to Afghanistan to undertake charity work for two months. It was a decision that would change his life, which until then had been peaceful and happy.

Sherif was born into a large, secular family on December 14, 1976, in Shibin Elkom, the capital of the Manufeya Governate in Egypt. His mother is an Assistant Principal at a middle school. His father passed away in 1997.

Sherif was an exemplary student throughout primary and secondary school—he had many friends, and was well liked by all of his former teachers. He was a natural athlete, and would later join Shibin Elkom competitive swimming and diving team after graduating from secondary school. He also had a talent for carpentry and craftsmanship, which led him to enroll in a technical school to learn woodworking, cabinetmaking, painting, tiling, plumbing and roofing. After graduating, he spent 3 years working in Sinai at some of Egypt’s largest beach resorts. There Sherif first began to pick up Italian from the large tourist base in the area.

In 1997, after his father died, Sherif wanted to find better paid work outside of Egypt because he felt, as the oldest son, now responsible for providing for his family. Accordingly, he set out for Como, Italy to live with his uncle, an Italian citizen, so that he could look for a job.

After securing a permesso di soggiorno, he first worked at a restaurant, and then a bar, but his knack for the crafts led him to find work with Italian painting companies Alphonso Pretti and Cannella. After apprenticing for about two years, Sherif obtained a license from the Chamber of Commerce in Como to work as an independent contractor. He owned his own company, called “Sherif El Mashad,” running the business out of his house. Sherif paid his taxes regularly and never had problems with the Italian authorities.

In the spring of 2001, Sherif met a Kuwaiti man named Abu Sa’ad, who was a wealthy businessman. He encouraged Sherif to travel to Afghanistan to do charity work. Sherif saw this as a dual opportunity. He could network with a wealthy businessman, while also helping those less fortunate than himself by distributing food, clothes, and blankets. Sherif often analogizes this to organizing a charity gala with a prospective business partner.

With this in mind, Sherif booked a round-trip ticket, intending to stay in Afghanistan for a couple of months, then return home to work. Indeed, just two days before he left Italy in July 2001, Sherif had billed a customer almost €15,000 for painting services to be collected on his return.

Sherif spent less than two months in Afghanistan before September 11. The invasion of Afghanistan followed soon thereafter. The region deteriorated into violence and chaos, and he could not safely escape the country. When he finally made it across the border to Pakistan, he was seized by Pakistani authorities and handed over to the Americans, apparently for a bounty.

The US military took Sherif to prison in Kandahar, Afghanistan, site of notorious US abuses. The routine at Kandahar included severe beatings, exposure to freezing temperatures, sleep deprivation for hours on end, and suspending prisoners by their wrists.

Sherif remained imprisoned there until roughly February 2002. He was then transferred to Guantanamo Bay, where he was confined for eight years. First he was held in Camp X-Ray, then in Camp Delta, and then in Camp 6, where he was in solitary confinement in a windowless steel cell with no ability to communicate or even see other detainees for 23 out of the 24 hours of the day. He was then transferred to Camp 2, where he remained in solitary confinement.

Sherif has never been charged with a crime or given a day in court to defend himself. He has always denied that he has anything to do with terrorism. Years ago he was visited by Italian officials in Guantánamo. “They told me they knew I was innocent and they would ask the United States to release me,” he states.

In February 2010, Sherif was eventually cleared by military review boards at Guantanamo under the Bush administration and also by President Obama's interagency Task Force. But he could not be repatriated at the time because of fears of being tortured, and so was sent to Albania.

Following the Arab Spring and the fall of President Mubarak, Sherif now dreams of returning home to his family in Egypt.