Ismail Mahmoud Muhammad

Reprieves congratulates Somaliland on welcoming home Ismail Mohamed who was wrongfully incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay.

Ismail Mohamed’s suffering in Guantanamo Bay came to an end on the 19th December 2009. Due to the Somaliland Governments humanitarian spirit Ismail can slowly begin to rebuild his life after his traumatising experience in the detention facilities.

Born in Mogadishu in 1970, Ismail grew up in the Somali capital until the security situation forced him to cut short his studies and move north to Somaliland. There, he committed himself to using his knowledge to educate others. He established northern Somalia’s first English school, writing the curriculum himself to give young people the chance to learn an international language. He also worked as a journalist with a local newspaper.

In 1998, Ismail decided to move to Pakistan to study at the International Islamic University. He took a degree in English Literature, visiting Somalia every two years to see his family. He stayed in Pakistan for several years, excelling in his studies and becoming a respected leader of the Somali community in the country.

When his father died, he moved back to Somalia, settling with his extended family at first and eventually moving back to Mogadishu, the city of his birth, where the rule of the Union of Islamic Courts had brought relative stability to the war-torn capital.

But the calm would not last for long. At the end of 2006, the Ethiopian Army invaded Somalia, intent of removing the Islamic Courts from power. Ismail moved back to northern Somalia. He opposed the presence of Ethiopian soldiers in Somalia and as a respected member of the community, was asked to attend a conference in Eritrea aimed at organising a political campaign to ensure that they left.

On his way to conference, in the neighbouring country Djibouti, Ismail was seized by local police, apparently at the behest of the Americans. After spending three days in Djiboutian custody, he was handed over to the United States. He was taken to Camp Lemonier, a sprawling US base in the country where he was held in a shipping container and interrogated by Americans.

On the 6th of June 2007, the US Department of Defence issued a press release announcing the transfer of “a dangerous terror suspect,” to Guantanamo Bay.

They accused the frightened community leader of serving as a courier between Al-Qaeda groups in Pakistan and Somalia and assisting them in acquiring weapons and explosives.

Ismail insisted that he was innocent throughout his time in Guantanamo. His only crime, he said, was opposing the Ethiopian invasion of his country. Rather than being the dangerous ideologue that the US government said he was, Ismail is an independent minded, moderate academic, respected by his community both in Pakistan and Somalia.

Reprieve is relieved that this terrifying ordeal is over for Ismail.