Muhammad al-Ansi

Muhammad Ahmad Abdallah al-Ansi is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 029. American intelligence analysts estimate he was born in 1975, in Sanaa, Yemen. He was cleared for release on December 9, 2016, a recommendation made public on December 22. He was transferred to Oman with nine other men on January 16, 2017.

In 2016, Al Ansi created a painting called Titanic while detained at Guantanamo Bay. He created the work from memory based upon being shown the Titanic film during his interrogation. He also created a painting of the Statue of Liberty. The artworks were two of seven works created by inmates, and it was displayed at John Jay College, New York, in the autumn of 2017.

In April 2015, Jason Leopold succeeded in getting access to the list of 71 individuals who were not cleared for release, and not recommended for holding for trial, who were determined to be eligible for Periodic Review Board hearings. Al-Ansi was one of the individuals the task force recommended should face indefinite detention, without charge.

On April 25, 2011, whistleblower organization WikiLeaks published formerly secret assessments drafted by Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts. His 10-page Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment was drafted on May 17, 2008. It was signed by camp commandant Rear Admiral David M. Thomas Jr. He recommended continued detention.

Scholars at the Brookings Institution, led by Benjamin Wittes, listed the captives still held in Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain common allegations:

On June 12, 2008, the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Boumediene v. Bush, that the Military Commissions Act could not remove the right for Guantanamo captives to access the U.S. Federal Court system. Further, all previous Guantanamo captives' habeas petitions were eligible to be re-instated. The judges considering the captives' habeas petitions would be considering whether the evidence used to compile the allegations the men and boys were enemy combatants justified a classification of "enemy combatant".

Al-Ansi's petition was filed after the Supreme Court's ruling in Boumediene v. Bush. In late December 2008, the United States Department of Justice proposed amalgamating fifteen separate petitions, including Al-Ansi's, because they claimed those captives were all captured in Tora Bora.

On December 30, 2008, United States Department of Justice official Daniel M. Barish informed the court that the DoJ had filed "factual returns" in seven habeas cases, including al-Ansi's.

The Military Commissions Act of 2006 mandated that Guantanamo captives were no longer entitled to access the US civil justice system, so all outstanding habeas corpus petitions were stayed.

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.

Al Ansi had a writ of habeas corpus, Civil Action No. 08-cv-1923, filed on his behalf.