This is the second article I have written about the military commissions case against Ahmed Al Darbi. I wrote the first article about his case in 2014.
The factual circumstances surrounding a plea deal at Guantanamo demonstrate the international nature of Islamic terrorism and the US response to it.
On Oct. 6, 2002, Al Qaeda attacked a French-flagged ship operated by a Malaysian oil company and killed a Bulgarian crew member.
The ship was the MV Limburg.
The MV Limburg was attacked off the coast of Yemen
(Photo credit: Agence France-Presse)
The Malaysian oil company leased the ship, which was owned by a subsidiary of a Belgian firm.
Eleven years later, a Saudi prisoner at Guantanamo pled guilty to helping Al Qaeda prepare for the attack.
Ahmed Al Darbi pled guilty on Feb. 20, 2014, to assisting in the preparation of the terrorist attack on a civilian oil tanker off the coast of Yemen.
Darbi pled guilty to several war crimes in a military commission at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The plea deal was made during
the Obama administration.
Al Darbi pled guilty to helping plan the attack on the MV Limburg.
(Photo Credit: International Committee of the Red Cross)
Prosecutors likely agreed to a plea deal with Darbi partly to secure his testimony against Al Nashiri, a Guantanamo prisoner who has been charged with carrying out the attack on the USS Cole.
A total of 17 American sailors were killed in the attack on the Cole, which was a US navy ship.
Role in the attack
Darbi admitted he helped plan and arrange for Al Qaeda to sink one or more oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, which ultimately led to the attack on the Limburg.
Darbi admitted that he purchased boats, GPS devices, and a hydraulic crane for use in the operation.
Darbi pled guilty to attacking civilians, attacking civilian property, endangering the safe navigation of a vessel, terrorism, attempting to endanger the safe navigation of a vessel, and attempting to commit terrorism.
Even though Darbi pled guilty to helping plan the attack, he was already imprisoned at Guantanamo by the time the attack took place.
According to his Detainee Assessment Brief, Darbi was arrested in Azerbaijan for having counterfeit money.
Darbi was arrested in June 2002. He was transferred to US custody before being sent to Guantanamo on Aug. 5, 2002.
Transfer to Saudi Arabia
Pursuant to his plea deal, Darbi was transferred to Saudi Arabia on May 2, 2018, to serve the roughly nine years remaining in his 13-year sentence.
Darbi was the one and only prisoner transferred from Guantanamo during the Trump administration.
Darbi provided a statement to his lawyer where briefly discussed his thoughts about indefinite detention at Guantanamo.
“My words will not do justice to what I lived through in these years and to the men I leave behind in prison,” he said. “No one should remain at Guantanamo without a trial. There is no justice in that.”
By my count, this story involves eight countries: France, Malaysia, Bulgaria, Belgium, Yemen, the United States, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia.
