A Yemeni prisoner at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay appears to have been the victim of mistaken identity, suspected of being a significant member of Al-Qaeda when he was in reality just a lowly foot soldier, officials said in documents released Tuesday.
Mustafa al-Aziz al-Shamini has been held at the U.S. base as an enemy combatant without charge for over 13 years after his capture in Afghanistan.
The documents were part of a packet of materials produced for the Periodic Review Board, a panel of government officials deciding whether prisoner Al-Aziz Al-Shamiri can be released from Guantanamo as part of larger effort to reduce the number of men held and eventually close the prison at the base in Cuba. Al-Shamiri appeared before the board Tuesday.
A "detainee profile" of the 37-year-old prisoner concludes he was an fighter who fought in several theaters of conflict including Afghanistan and associated with members of Al-Qaeda. But it says officials were wrong when they said he was a courier or trainer for the group and they had confused him with other more high-level fighters with a similar name.