Abdulmalik Mohammed

Abdul Malik was one of the 71 individuals deemed too innocent to charge, but too dangerous to release. Obama promised that those deemed too innocent to charge, but too dangerous to release would start to receive reviews from a Periodic Review Board. Abdul Malik was approved for transfer on December 27, 2021.

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.

The BBC reported on December 11, 2009 Abdul Malik's family is suing the Kenyan government over its role in his detention in Guantanamo. The BBC reports that his family have an affidavit from Kenyan police stating that they have no reason to suspect that he has any ties to terrorism. His first hearing is scheduled for 14 January 2010.

In April 2010, Reuters and the Associated Press reported that the Kenyan Foreign Ministry had written to Abdul Malik's lawyers, informing them that they had initiated the process of getting him repatriated.

According to The Standard Kenyan Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo "broke silence" and requested the United States to repatriate Abdulmalik in December 2009.

On 23 April 2008 attorneys working on behalf of Salim Ahmed Hamdan requested permission to meet with Abdul Malik and Mustafa al-Hawsawi. Hamdan's attorneys had previously requested permission to get the "high-value detainees" to answer written questions, which would confirm that if Hamdan played a role in al Qaeda it had been a peripheral one. Abdul Malik and Mustafa al-Hawsawi declined to answer the questions, because they said they had no way to know that the questions purporting to be from Hamdan's attorneys was not a ruse. Andrea J. Prasow requested permission for Lieutenant Commander Brian Mizer to meet in person with the two men to try to assure them that the questions were not a ruse, and would not be shared with their interrogators.

Gutteridge said Reprieve successfully litigated to get access to Abdul Malik Mohamed in early 2008, but their notes had not been cleared, and they had not been allowed to talk about them until early October 2008.

Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu is a citizen of Kenya currently held in extrajudicial detention in the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. He was born in Busia, Uganda in 1973, but has Kenyan citizenship. Abdul Malik was captured in February 2007, on suspicion of leading a terrorist bomb-plot in Mombasa. He was transferred to Guantanamo on 26 March 2007. Abdul Malik is a confirmed member of the East Africa al-Qaeda network as well as a confirmed member of the Council of Islamic Courts and the Islamic Part of Kenya. He "actively participated" in the facilitation of weapons and the planning of terrorist acts against the U.S., according to the Joint Task Force (JTF) at Guantanamo Bay. He was recommended for continued detention under the Department of Defense's control. The JTF gave Abdul Malik a high risk threat against the United States' interests and allies. He has no reports of disciplinary infractions as of May 22, 2007, granting him a low detention risk value. Abdul Malik does, however, have a high intelligence value.

According to a British Broadcasting Corporation report from 4 May 2007, Abdul Malik confessed, under interrogation, to a role in the 2002 bombing of the Paradise Hotel in Mombasa. According to the BBC report, Abdul Malik had been transferred to Guantanamo a month earlier.

Kenyan law allows the police to hold suspects for 14 days, before they lay a charge. The lawsuit filed on Abdul Malik's behalf says police held him for longer than the 14 days the law allows, from February 13, 2007 to February 27, 2007, in addition to subjecting him to abusive interrogation techniques, and not letting him consult legal advice. Kenyan Police officials assert that he was held for less than 14 days, and that he was released—that they did not hand him over to US officials.