Shawqi Awad
Nationality: Yemeni
Date of birth: 24 July 1981
Place of birth: Hadramawt, Yemen
Aliases: Shawqi Awad Ba Zahir, Shawki Awad Balzuhair, Abu Malik al-Yemeni
Capture: 11 September 2002, Karachi, Pakistan
Captured alongside: Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Hassan bin Attash, Abd al-Rahim Ghulam Rabbani, Ghulam Rabbani, Ayub Marshid Salih, Bashir al-Marwalah, Musab al-Mudwani, Said Saleh Said, Ha’il al-Mithali
SSCI prison number: 13
Entered CIA custody: 14 September 2002 – 15 September 2002
Period of CIA custody: 30-39 days
Left CIA custody: 14 October 2002 – 24 October 2002
Detained: Pakistan, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay
Current status: detained, Guantánamo Bay
Shawqi Awad is a Yemeni man who – according to calculations published by the SSCI – was held by the CIA for around a month (30-39 days). He was one of a number of suspects captured on 11 September 2002 in a series of raids in Karachi by Pakistani ISI officers, rangers and police officers, sparked by the capture the day before of another suspect, Ghulam Rabbani. After capture, Awad may have been held in Pakistani detention for a number of days before being transferred into CIA custody.
It appears from the SSCI report that a group of prisoners captured on 11 September 2002, including Awad, were moved into and out of CIA custody together. Analysis by The Rendition Project and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has also concluded it likely that this group was transferred to CIA custody along with Hassan bin Attash, who was then separated from the group and transferred onwards to Jordan. Given bin Attash’s own testimony, this transfer date is likely to have been at some point on either 14-15 September 2002. There is no information regarding where Awad was held during his period of CIA detention. Given that the others in the group captured alongside Awad and held by the CIA during the same period were held at the CIA-run DETENTION SITE COBALT, it is almost certain that he was as well.
Given what is known about the duration of his CIA detention, Awad would have been transferred out of CIA control at some point 14-24 October 2002. DoD records show that he was held at the military detention site at Bagram Airbase (without giving an exact inbound date), and then transferred to Guantánamo Bay on 28 October 2002, where he remains.
Sources
SSCI, Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Detention and Interrogation Program, 9 December 2014
DoD, JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment: Shawqi Awad Ba Zahir, 19 May 2008
New York Times, The Guantánamo Docket: Shawki Awad Balzuhair
