Saifullah Paracha is a citizen of Pakistan currently held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. The Department of Defense reports that Paracha was born on August 17, 1947, in Mongwal, Pakistan. He graduated from a university in Karachi with a degree in physics and attended New York Institute of Technology, studying computer systems analysis. As of January 2020, Saifullah Paracha has been held at Guantanamo for almost fifteen years.
Paracha's Son
Paracha's son, Uzair Paracha, was convicted in 2005 for providing support to Al-Qaeda, that included assistance for Majid Khan to obtain documents. On July 3, 2018, 15 years after his arrest, Uzair's conviction was deemed void by Judge Sidney H. Stein based on newly discovered statements made by Ammar Al Baluchi, Majid Khan and Khalid Sheikh Mohammad. Stein, who oversaw Paracha’s trial and imposed his sentence, called it a “manifest injustice” to let the conviction stand and granted Paracha’s request, made in November 2008, for a new trial. Uzair was freed on the 13th of March, 2020 and willingly repatriated to Pakistan, giving up his resident status.
A writ of habeas corpus, Saifullah Paracha v. George W. Bush, was submitted on Saifullah Paracha's behalf. In response, on December 21, 2004, the Department of Defense published fifty-eight pages of unclassified documents related to his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. On December 8, 2004, Tribunal panel 24 convened and confirmed Saifullah Paracha's "enemy combatant" status.
On January 21, 2009, the day he was inaugurated, United States President Barack Obama issued three Executive orders related to the detention of individuals in Guantanamo. 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. Saifullah Paracha was one of the 71 individuals deemed too innocent to charge, but too dangerous to release. Obama said those deemed too innocent to charge, but too dangerous to release would start to receive reviews from a Periodic Review Board.
The first review wasn't convened until November 20, 2013. Parachas's review convened on April 8, 2016. His was the 29th review to be convened. Paracha was denied approval for transfer on April 7, 2016.
Press reports
On July 12, 2006 the magazine Mother Jones provided excerpts from the transcripts of a selection of the Guantanamo detainees. Paracha was one of the detainees profiled. According to the article his transcript contained the following exchange: On June 2, 2008 Zachary Katznelson appealed to the Pakistani government for assistance, stating:
