Yaser Esam Hamdi

Who is Yaser Esam Hamdi?

Yaser Esam Hamdi is a former American citizen who was captured in Afghanistan in 2001. The United States government claims that he was fighting with the Taliban against U.S. and Afghan Northern Alliance forces. He was declared an "illegal enemy combatant" by the Bush administration and detained for almost three years without charge. He was a US citizen, as he was born in Louisiana. On October 9, 2004, on the condition that he renounce his US citizenship and commit to travel prohibitions and other conditions, the government released him and deported him to Saudi Arabia, where he had grown up.

Hamdi was initially detained at Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, along with eventually hundreds of other detainees. After officials learned that he was a US citizen, Hamdi was transferred to military jails in Virginia and South Carolina. He continued to be detained without trial or legal representation.

Critics of his imprisonment claimed his civil rights were violated and that he was denied due process of law under the U.S. Constitution. They said his imprisonment without formal charges and denial of legal representation was illegal.

On June 28, 2004, in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, the United States Supreme Court rejected the U.S. government's attempts to detain Hamdi indefinitely without trial. It said he had the right as a US citizen to due process under habeas corpus: to confront his accusers and contest the grounds of detention in an impartial forum.