Tariq al-Sawah

Tariq Mahmud Ahmad Muhammad al Sawah (born November 2, 1957) is a citizen of Egypt who was held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba, from May 2002 to January 2016. He was charged with war crimes, but those charges were dismissed on March 1, 2012. According to the Egypt Independent, formerly secret documents, drafted by Joint Task Force Guantanamo, and published by the whistleblower organization WikiLeaks in 2011, contradicted the charges al Sawah had faced.

Al Sawah was one of the few captives who acknowledged having fought in conflicts such as the Bosnian war during the Breakup of Yugoslavia. The Long War Journal reported that al Sawah joined the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in 1981. They reported that he was rounded up in the large round up of Muslim Brotherhood members following the assassination of Anwar Sadat. The Long War Journal also reported that al Sawah, was a very skilled bomb maker, who had been trained by Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah, the bomb maker who developed the bomb used against the Cole. Tom Dale, writing for the Egyptian Independent found that there was a "disregard for both fact and coherence on the part of U. S. interrogators." The Washington Post reported that al Sawah and Mohamedou Ould Slahi were held in a separate compound, where they were extended extra privileges, as they had both chosen to cooperate with intelligence officials. In August 2012, al Sawah was the last Egyptian captive in Guantanamo. Al Sawah was seriously wounded by a cluster bomb, prior to apprehension. In 2004 the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, that Guantanamo captives were entitled to being informed of the allegations justifying their detention, and were entitled to try to refute them.

Following the Supreme Court's ruling the Department of Defense set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants. Tariq Mahmud Ahmad Muhammad al Sawah was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges are members of Al Qaeda."

Al Sawah had a writ of habeas corpus filed on his behalf in June 2005.

On April 25, 2011, whistleblower organization WikiLeaks published formerly secret assessments drafted by Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts. Joint Task Force Guantanamo drafted a fourteen page assessment of al Sawah, dated September 30, 2008. The memo was signed by camp commandant David M. Thomas Jr. and recommended his "Transfer Out of DOD Control."

When he assumed office in January 2009 President Barack Obama made a number of promises about the future of Guantanamo. He promised the use of torture would cease at the camp. He promised to institute a new review system. That new review system was composed of officials from six departments, where the OARDEC reviews were conducted entirely by the Department of Defense. When it reported back, a year later, the Joint Review Task Force classified some individuals as too dangerous to be transferred from Guantanamo, even though there was no evidence to justify laying charges against them. On April 9, 2013, that document was made public after a Freedom of Information Act request. Tariq Mahmud Ahmad Muhammad al Sawah was one of the 71 individuals deemed too innocent to charge, but too dangerous to release. Although Obama promised that those deemed too innocent to charge, but too dangerous to release would start to receive reviews from a Periodic Review Board less than a quarter of men have received a review. Al Sawah was approved for transfer on February 12, 2015.

On December 16, 2008 Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Miami Herald, reported that the Guantanamo military commission prosecutors announced charges had been laid against Tariq al Sawah. These charges were later dismissed on March 1, 2012.

Rosenberg noted that the documents the DoD had published showed wild fluctuations in his body weight. In March 2013 the Egypt Independent reported that Tariq's lawyers had arranged for Dr. Sondra Crosby, an associate professor of medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine and Public Health, to examine him on two occasions. A letter from Crosby to camp authorities describes his health as at serious risk, due to his morbid obesity. Nevertheless, camp authorities decline to offer him any special treatment, or even to release his medical records.

Al Sawah was released in January 2016 after Bosnia and Herzegovina had expressed willingness to accept him.