Mohamed Farag Bashmilah

Who is Mohamed Farag Bashmilah?

Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah is a citizen of Yemen who is reported to have been a subject of the United States' controversial extraordinary rendition program. The American Civil Liberties Union states that he was apprehended by the Jordanian General Intelligence Department and tortured and interrogated for days, in Jordan, where he was: "turned over to agents who beat, kicked, diapered, hooded and handcuffed him before secretly transporting him to the U.S. Air Force base in Bagram, Afghanistan." They report that Bashmillah was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States' Bagram Theater Internment Facility, and the CIA network of black sites.

They report that he was repatriated to Yemen in May 2005, where he underwent a further nine months of detention. Bashmilah's case had been uncovered by Amnesty International in early 2005, and they were the only organization to have access to him in prison in Yemen, where they first visited him in June 2005, and on other occasions throughout his incarceration there. His story was first made public by Amnesty in August 2005, and a full report was issued in November 2005.

Amnesty International also interviewed and reported on the cases of two other Yemenis, Salah Nasir Salim ‘Ali and Muhammad Abdullah Salah al-Assad, who were held in the CIA black site with Bashmilah and who were returned with him to Yemen in May 2005. The three are notable because they were the first to describe CIA black site detention in detail. Although the CIA's network of black sites is estimated to have held 150 captives, most of their identities remain unknown.