Background

 

Nassim is a Baluch/Balitsi Afghan Sunni citizen, a cellular phone merchant with a business in the Zahedan area of Iran, and married with six children.   

 

Transfer

 

Nassim was one of the last detainees to arrive at Guantanamo. He was held without charge at Guantanamo since September 2007. The Department of Defense announced on the 12th September 2007 his transfer to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

 

Detention

 

Nassim was abducted in Afghanistan and sent to Bagram and Guantanamo Bay where he suffered abuse. His name was confused by US authorities with that of an, ‘Inayatullah.’

 

Allegations

 

His lawyer, Miami public defender Paul Raskind, says Nassim has never been known as ‘Inayatullah’ anywhere but in Guantánamo. Also that Nassim has never had a role in Al Qaeda, was in fact named Hajji Nassim and ran a cellphone shop in Iran near the Afghan border.

 

Nassim was captured and US authorities claimed he was ‘Inayatullah.’ Inayatullah is alleged to be the Al Qaeda Emir of Zahedan, Iran, planned and directed Al Qaeda terrorist operations, collaborated with numerous alleged Al Qaeda senior leaders, including Abu Ubaydah al-Masri and Azzam, executed their instructions and personally supported global terrorist efforts. Inayatullah is also said to have also facilitated the movement of foreign fighters, significantly contributed to trans-national terrorism across multiple borders, met with local operatives, developed travel routes and coordinated documentation, accommodation and vehicles for smuggling 'unlawful combatants' throughout countries including Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Iraq.

 

According to documents filed in federal court two years later, the government described Nassim, mistaken for ‘Inayatullah’, as less central to al-Qaida operations: "[Inayatullah] was an active participant in several terrorist facilitation networks responsible for moving al-Qaida fighters into Pakistan, knowingly delivered and facilitated the delivery of correspondence and supplies between senior al-Qaida leaders in Iran and Pakistan, and received money from al-Qaida operatives either as payment for his services or to finance his facilitation network."

 

Nassim was not charged with any crime and was never put before a Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) at Guantanamo: a Pentagon evaluation of whether he met the criteria for indefinite detention as an “Enemy Combatant.”

 

No pictures of Nassim have been released to the public while he was detained, and his Guantánamo Detainee Assessment Briefs (ARBS) were not among those leaked in early 2011.

 

Abuse

 

Nassim was interrogated more than 60 times in both Bagram and at Guantanamo between 2007 and 2009. In the middle of this process, in January 2008, investigators described him as "emotionally distraught."

 

Death

 

Nassim is said to have been found hanging by a bed sheet in a prison camp recreation yard and that he was not conscious or breathing when guards checked on him in the morning.

 

Tanya Bradsher, a spokesperson for the Pentagon, says Nassim was discovered early Wednesday morning, “Hanging from his neck by what appears to be bed linen” but would not say in which of the camps Nassim was found dead.

 

However, the military would not say whether he was discovered hanging in the rec. yard before dawn or after and whether the other detainees had already conducted their morning prayers. They also would not say what has led them to conclude Nassim hanged himself.

 

Tamsen Reese, the detention centre’s spokeswoman, would not answer when asked how it was possible that a captive could succeed in killing themselves at a facility that has guards monitoring each detainee at all times and describes itself as one of the most heavily scrutinized prison facilities in the world? 

 

Condition

 

Nassim is reported dead in detention.