Martin Mubanga

Martin Mubanga
Mubanga in 2005 after his release
Citizenship	United Kingdom + Zambian
Detained at	Guantánamo
ISN	10007
Charge(s)	no charge, held in extrajudicial detention
Status	repatriated

Martin Mubanga is a joint citizen of both the United Kingdom and Zambia. He was held, without charge, and interrogated at the American prison at Guantanamo Bay for 33 months.

During 1995 he spent six months in Bosnia working for a charity.

In January 2005, when American authorities transferred him to UK custody, after a brief interrogation British officials determined there were no grounds to charge Mubanga with any crimes, and he was released. The Bush administration routinely described the Guantanamo detainees as having been unlawful combatants, who were captured on the battlefield. Mubanga, however, was the victim of an extraordinary rendition from Zambia, without having an opportunity to challenge his capture or rendition. Under the Royal Prerogative, the United Kingdom government has declined to issue a new passport to Mubanga and three other of the nine freed British Guantanamo detainees.

George W. Bush administration asserted they could withhold the protections of the Geneva Conventions from captives in the "War on Terror." Critics argued the Conventions obliged the United States to conduct competent tribunals to determine the status of prisoners. Subsequently, the US Department of Defense instituted Combatant Status Review Tribunals, to determine whether the captives met the new definition of an "enemy combatant."

The CSRTs are not bound by the rules of evidence that would apply in court, and the government’s evidence is presumed to be “genuine and accurate.”