Fawzi Khalid Abdullah Fahad Al Odah v. United States of America

Court	United States Court of Appeal, District of Columbia, Unites States of America, United States
Case number	09-5331
Decision title	Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia
Decision date	30 June 2010
Parties	Fawzi Khalid Abdullah Fahad Al Odah, a.k.a. Fouzi Khalid Abdullah Al Awda United States of America
Categories	Terrorism
Keywords	Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, Habeas corpus, Terrorism
Links	Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia
Other countries involved	Afghanistan Kuwait

Summary

Fawzi Khalid Abdullah Fahad Al Odah was captured in Afghanistan for his involvement with the Taliban. Since 2002, Al Odah has been detained at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay (Cuba). He filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus (a legal action allowing the detained person to challenge the legality of his detention) in May 2002. In 2008, the Supreme Court in the consolidated cases of Boumediene v. Bush and Al-Odah v. United States, considered that US federal courts have jurisdiction to hear petitions of habeas corpus. The District Court denied Al Odah’s petition on the grounds that the evidence adduced by the US Government was enough to permit his detention.

Al Odah appealed the District Court’s judgment raising challenges with respect to the procedure admitting evidence as well as the sufficiency of evidence to support that he was part of the al Qaeda and Taliban forces.

The Court of Appeals dismissed both grounds of appeal since it did not find any errors either in the District Court’s procedure on admitting evidence or in the sufficiency of the evidence presented by the US Government. In this light, the Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of Al Odah’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus.

Procedural history

Al Odah filed his petition for a writ of habeas corpus on 1 May 2002. The case has been stayed pending a decision on the issue of jurisdiction to hear Al Odah’s claims.

After the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in the consolidated cases of Boumediene v. Bush and Al-Odah v. United States, US federal courts were found to have jurisdiction to hear petitions for writs of habeas corpus.

On 24 August 2009, the District Court denied Al Odah’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus.

Related developments

On 28 September 2010, Al Odah petitioned for a writ of certiorari to the US Supreme Court, asking the Supreme Court to reverse the federal appeals court decision which denied his habeas corpus petition. On 4 April 2011, the US Supreme Court denied the petition for a writ of certiorari.

In a reaction on President Barack Obama's State of the Union stating that "by the end of the year, America's longest war will finally be over", Al Odah filed suit on 5 February 2014 in the US District Court for Columbia, alleging that he should be freed upon US withdrawal from Afghanistan, citing international law's mandate that prisoners of war be released once a conflict has ended.

In November 2014, Al Odah was released from Guantanamo where he had been held for 12 years.

Legally relevant facts

Al Odah was captured in Afghanistan and has been detained at the US Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay (Cuba) since 2002. He admitted to have had connections to and to have received training from the Taliban in Afghanistan. The US Government based his detainment on the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) of 2001. Al Odah considered his detainment unlawful and filed for a writ of habeas corpus. (pp. 3-5)

The District Court for the District of Columbia denied Al Odah’s petition on the grounds that the evidence adduced by the US Government was enough to permit his detention (pp. 5-9).

On 8 September 2009, Al Odah filed a notice of appeal. (p. 9)

Core legal questions

Did the District Court err with respect to the procedures relating to the admission of evidence?
Did the District Court err with respect to the sufficiency of the evidence to support its judgment?

Specific legal rules and provisions

Paragraph 2241 of Title 28 of the US Code.

Court's holding and analysis

Al Odah challenged both the procedure applied by the District Court in admitting evidence as well as the level of sufficiency of the evidence accepted by the District Court in its findings (p. 9).

With respect to the procedural challenges, the Court of Appeals raised the issue of whether the District Court conducted a correct analysis of hearsay evidence. The Court of Appeals dismissed Al Odah’s challenges relating to the procedural aspects on the basis that “[t]he district court correctly applied the law, and therefore, there was no abuse of its discretion” (p. 12).

Turning to the challenges relating to the sufficiency of the evidence, Al Odah argued that the evidence put before the District Court was insufficient to find that he was part of Al Qaeda and the Taliban (p. 12). However, the Court of Appeals concluded that “[i]n our review of the record, we see strong support for the district court’s finding that al Odah was “part of” al Qaeda and Taliban forces in the fall of 2001. Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s denial of al Odah’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus” (p. 17).

Instruments cited

Code of Laws of the United States of America (United States Code), Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1983.

Related cases

Supreme Court of the United States, Boumediene et al. v. Bush et al.,Civil Actions Nos. 06-1195 and 06-1196, 12 June 2008;
US District Court for the District of Columbia, Fawzi Khalid Abdullah Fahad Al Odah et al. v. United States et al., Civil Action No. 02-828 (CKK), Classified Memorandum Opinion, 24 August 2009;
Supreme Court of the United States, Fawzi Khalid Abdullah Fahad Al-Odah et al v. United States of America et al., Petition for Writ of Certiorari, 28 September 2010.