Abu Zubaydah’s story
This timeline traces the journey of Abu Zubaydah from his childhood, to his capture and torture, on to his continuing detention without charge or trial today. It also tracks his ongoing quest for justice.
- March 12, 1971
Early years
Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn, , أبو زبيدة, known as Abu Zubaydah, was born in Saudi Arabia to displaced Palestinian parents. He grew up in Riyadh with a deep sense of identity tied to his Palestinian heritage, and became increasingly troubled by what he saw as the oppression of Muslims around the world. Raised by a caring mother and a strict father, he was close to his siblings, who affectionately called him “happy Hani” and described him as the idealist of the family. He has not seen his family for more than two decades.
- 1990s
Looking for a path … India to Afghanistan
Although his father was determined that Hani, like his older brother, would become a doctor, Hani decided to study computer engineering and travelled to India. But he became unsatisfied with the program, felt lost, and dropped out of school. He travelled to various countries in search of a path. In 1991, he travelled to Afghanistan to support the U.S-supported mujahideen against the Soviet-backed communist government. During that conflict, shrapnel became lodged his skull, causing lasting impairment. He studied and worked at the Khalden camp, which rejected the extremism of al Qaeda and did not believe in targeting civilians.
- September 11, 2001
9/11 and the ‘war on terror’
The horrendous 9/11 attacks claimed 3000 lives and were followed by an unbounded American war—the ‘global war on terror’. On 12 September 2001, President Bush warned that it would not end until “every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated…” Vice President Cheney announced that they would have to work “on the dark side…” and “would not tie the hands of our intelligence communities”. The Bush administration decided to create secret offshore prisons to detain and torture Muslim men without legal or political oversight.
- January 11, 2002
Guantánamo, a “legal black hole”, opens
Parallel to CIA detentions at black sites, the United States also opened a prison at Guantánamo Bay, a US military controlled detention center in Cuba. Photos of hundreds of cowered men in orange jumpsuits became an iconic image of the war on terror. While not entirely clandestine, unlike the secret CIA prisons, the US claimed that normal legal protections did not apply to the offshore detention camp. In the words of one English judge, they were seeking to create a “legal black hole” that has still not been filled.
- March 28, 2002
Capture and Rendition of Abu Zubaydah
Abu Zubaydah, then 31, was captured during a joint US-Pakistani raid on a safe house in Faisalabad. The US declared that they had caught the “no. 3 in al Qaeda,” a claim that was never true and would be retracted in later years. During the raid, Abu Zubaydah was shot multiple times. While a doctor ensured he stayed alive, he was denied the medical care he needed. Instead, he was transferred into the first of the secret CIA black sites, where he was tortured brutally.
- April - December, 2002
“Black Site Detention” commences – Torture in Thailand
The first black site was in Thailand, at a warehouse outside Bangkok. It was here that his carefully orchestrated, round-the-clock torture began. Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EITs) had been designed by CIA contractors to induce “learned helplessness” in detainees. These torture techniques were approved at the highest levels within the US administration and endorsed by its lawyers. They included waterboarding, confinement in small coffin-sized boxes, prolonged sleep deprivation, physical beatings and stress positions, among others. Abu Zubaydah was the first prisoner subjected to these “EITs” and the only prisoner subjected to all of them (as well as some that were not authorized), leading him to be described as “the guinea pig” for the torture program. According to the US Senate report, he was subjected to these techniques, in isolation and in combination, on a near 24/7 basis during August 2002. The horror of this experience is powerfully captured in his ‘torture drawings’.
- 4 December, 2002 - 22 December, 2003
Europe obliges – transfer to Poland
On 4 December 2002 Abu Zubaydah was transferred from Thailand to the Polish black site at Stare Kiejkuty. The site was formerly used as an outpost of the intelligence service of the Nazi German SS and by the Soviet Army as an intelligence training facility. In 2002, it was the CIA’s turn. The European Court of Human Rights would later find it was ‘inconceivable’, even in 2002, that Poland did not know the nature of the CIA torture program, yet it actively cooperated, ‘acquiesced and connived’ to make possible the rendition and torture program on European soil.
- September 2003
Brief transfer to ‘Strawberry Fields’, Guantánamo Bay
On 22 September 2003, Abu Zubaydah was transferred to Guantánamo Bay. This only lasted six months. He was soon transferred back into CIA black sites abroad because the United States worried that the litigation underway on behalf of Guantanamo prisoners might culminate in Abu Zubaydah accessing lawyers and winning the right to challenge his detention—an outcome the United States was determined to prevent.
- March 27, 2004 - February 17/18, 2005
Detention in Morocco
Abu Zubaydah was transferred out of Guantánamo Bay into a CIA site in Morocco, close to Rabat. He was detained there until 17 or 18 February 2005. The United States reportedly provided Morrocco with a multi-million subsidy package to secure its cooperation.
- 17/18 February, 2005 - 25 March, 2006
Back to Europe, this time to Lithuania
On 17 or 18 February 2005, Abu Zubaydah was flown to Lithuania, where he was held for over a year until 25 March 2006. By 2006, there was little doubt that Lithuania knew about the secret prison on its soil, yet it actively cooperated in the CIA prison, as courts and bodies would subsequently confirm.
- 8/9 November, 2005
Head of counter-terrorism orders destruction of Video Tapes of Torture
On November 8 or 9 2005, Jose Rodriguez, then the director of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, authorized the destruction of videotapes of the torture of CIA prisoners, including Abu Zubaydah. Rodriquez later stated that destroying the tapes got rid of “some ugly visuals that could have put the lives of my people at risk”.
- 25/26 March, 2006 - September 2006
End of 2005 / early 2006 – transfer to Afghanistan
The CIA operated several black sites in Afghanistan (later codenamed by the US Senate Committee as “Orange”, “Brown”, “Cobalt” and “Grey”). Abu Zubaydah was transferred to Site Brown on 25 or 26 March 2006 and detained until September 2006. Once information about the “secret” CIA program entered the public domain, the Bush administration decided to close the sites.
- 5 September, 2006
Transfer to Guantánamo Bay and to endless detention with charge or trial (2006)
On 5 September 2006, Abu Zubaydah was transferred along with other “high-value detainees” to US military custody at Guantánamo Bay, where he remains. The purported legal basis was and is “law of war” authority – the right to detain pursuant to an endless war on terror.
- 2008
First access to a lawyer (2008)
Abu Zubaydah saw a lawyer for the first time in 2008, six years after his detention began. The right to access counsel is a basic right that should apply immediately upon detention. While overdue, access by detainees to lawyers was a crucial step forward, enabling the world to know of their detention in Guantanamo.
- August 2008
Habeas Corpus Petition
Guantánamo Bay detainees were granted the right to file habeas corpus petitions – to challenge the lawfulness of their detention – in 2004. The US Supreme Court finally recognized the existence of this as a constitutional right on 2008. On 6 August 2008, Abu Zubaydah’s lawyers filed a habeas corpus petition in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, challenging the lawfulness of his detention. Since then, there have been many filings, but as yet no decision.
- 24 August, 2009 - August 2012
DOJ Investigation into Alleged CIA Mistreatment of detainees closed
There is ample evidence of Abu Zubaydah’s torture from myriad sources, but there has been no accountability for the crimes committed during the torture scandal. The US Attorney General requested Assistant US Attorney John Durham of the District of Connecticut to conduct a preliminary review into whether US federal laws were violated in connection with the scandal. In June 2011, Durham recommended opening criminal investigations only in relation to the death of two individuals in US custody at overseas locations, and closing all remaining matters, including those relating to Abu Zubaydah. On August 30, 2012, the two remaining criminal investigations were also closed. No further investigation was considered “appropriate”. Noone was ever prosecuted.
- 2011-2014
Cases filed at European Court of Human Rights against European states – Poland first to be condemned
Several international claims were filed on behalf of Abu Zubaydah before the European Court of Human Rights, alleging that states had been complicit in his secret detention and torture. On 14 July 2011 and 28 January 2013, Abu Zubaydah and his legal team filed cases against Poland and Lithuania, respectively. The judgment against Poland was handed down on 24 July 2014. The ECtHR found Poland violated the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) by allowing CIA black sites to operate on their territory and failing to protect, investigate and ensure accountability. The judgment found Poland responsible for violations of Abu Zubaydah’s rights to freedom from torture, liberty, fair trial and private life.
Evidence established ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ Polish responsibility for the torture and illegal detention of Abu Zubaydah, for failing to meaningfully investigate and for its persistent, but ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to cover up the truth. Poland paid compensation in 2022, but it has yet to fully implement the judgment, which requires reckoning with the past, reparation and every effort to bring his unlawful detention to an end.
- 9 December, 2014
US Senate Torture Report
The US Senate Intelligence Committee released a landmark report on the CIA’s torture program after years of investigation and unprecedented access to CIA files. The 525-page public summary referenced Abu Zubaydah 1,001 times. It confirmed that the program was brutal, unlawful, and ineffective, producing no meaningful actionable intelligence. It also revealed the persistent sharing of misinformation about Abu Zubaydah. The full 6,700-page report remains classified.
The US Senate Committee report detailed some of the abuse of Abu Zubaydah, and included the following:
- “the CIA applied its enhanced interrogation techniques with significant repetition for days or weeks at a time. Interrogation techniques such as slaps and ‘wallings’ (slamming detainees against a wall) were used in combination, frequently concurrent with sleep deprivation and nudity. Records do not support CIA representations that the CIA initially used an ‘an open, non-threatening approach,’ or that interrogations began with the ‘least coercive technique possible’ and escalated to more coercive techniques only as necessary”
- “The waterboarding technique was physically harmful, inducing convulsions and vomiting. Abu Zubaydah, for example, became ‘completely unresponsive, with bubbles rising through his open, full mouth.’”
- “Sleep deprivation involved keeping detainees awake for up to 180 hours, usually standing or in stress positions, at times with their hands shackled above their heads.”
- “Contrary to CIA representations to the Department of Justice, the CIA instructed personnel that the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah would take ‘precedence’ over his medical care, resulting in the deterioration of a bullet wound Abu Zubaydah incurred during his capture.”
- In order to justify the use of ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ the government relied on “inaccurate CIA representations about Abu Zubaydah’s status in al-Qaida and the interrogation team’s “certainty” that Abu Zubaydah was withholding information”.
- The CIA provided guarantees to those detaining and torturing him that “Abu Zubaydah should remain incommunicado for the remainder of his life…”. which “may preclude [Abu Zubaydah] from being turned over to another country.’”
- 23 August, 2016 - 26 June, 2023
Periodic Review Board (PRB) refuses to approve release, without reasons
The Periodic Review Board (PRB) is not an independent court of law, and it does not assess the lawfulness of detention. Its role in periodically reviewing detention on security grounds provides little real opportunity to secure release. The refusals appear automatic, either on unclear grounds, or more commonly with no reasons being given at all. One of the submissions from one of his US attorneys is here.
- December 2017
Removal from UN (and other) Sanctions List
Abu Zubaydah was removed from the UN Security Council’s Al-Qaeda and Islamic State sanctions list on 26 December 2017. This followed a recommendation by the UN Ombudsperson, on the basis that he was not a member of al Qaeda. He was removed from other lists as a result, including the EU sanctions, though he remains subject to sanctions in the United States.
- May 2018
European Court of Human Rights Condemns Lithuania
On 31 May 2018, the ECtHR handed down a unanimous judgment against Lithuania, finding it responsible for hosting a black site on its territory. The judgment found Lithuania responsible for failing to prevent, investigate and provide accountability for the violations that took place in the black site, including torture and ill-treatment, unlawful detention, and unlawful transfer to further violations in Guantánamo. The ECtHR also found Lithuania in violation for failing to carry out a prompt, thorough and effective investigation and to satisfy the right to truth. In December 2021, the damages awarded by the ECtHR were finally paid, but other aspects of the Judgment have still not been implemented.
- 28 June, 2018
UK Complicity unearthed
On 28 June 2018, the UK Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee issued a report on “Detainee Mistreatment and Rendition: 2001–2010.” The report found that UK intelligence agencies submitted questions to be put to Abu Zubaydah during his torture, despite knowing what was happening to him. The report, states:
- “The case of Abu Zubaydah shows direct awareness of extreme mistreatment – and, probable torture, given the view that 98 per cent of US Special Forces would have broken. However, the Agencies continued to send the CIA questions to be used in interrogations without seeking any assurances regarding Zubaydah’s treatment in detention, until at least 2006.”
- The report also noted that, per the 2014 Senate report, “during this period Zubaydah was routinely subjected to treatment that, by UK standards, would be considered torture (including being ‘waterboarded’).”
In 2021, legal action for civil damages was launched in the courts of the United Kingdom concerning the UK government’s complicity in his torture. The UK would later pay him a substantial settlement, as outlined below.
- 2019 - Present
The Council of Europe calls for more from European states
Since 2014, Abu Zubaydah’s legal team has sought to ensure meaningful implementation of the ground-breaking ECtHR judgments, as examples of submissions show. Several reports of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers (COM) confirm that Poland and Lithuania paid compensation, but they have not adequately investigated or taken measures to ensure this would not happen again. Both states claim that non-cooperation by the US hampers further action, but more could be done. In particular, they should offer to facilitate release and relocation. The COM has also urged all Council of Europe member states to raise Abu Zubaydah’s situation and increase pressure on the United States. It has asked the United States to reconsider its position and take all measures to release and relocate Abu Zubaydah.
- 6 December, 2021
Abu Zubaydah in film …
An HBO documentary by Alex Gibney, ‘The Forever Prisoner’, was released on December 6 2021. The film details the treatment of Abu Zubaydah within the black sites and Guantánamo Bay. Several books, articles and reports now detail his torture, and lay bare the responsibility of many states and individuals. The director ends the film by suggesting he is not imprisoned because of what he did to us, but because of what we did to him.
- 2023 - 30 June, 2025
Civil accountability pursued (and thwarted) in US
In 2023 Abu Zubaydah filed a civil claim against the two CIA-contracted psychologists who designed and helped implement the “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques” used on him. But the case was thrown out on 30 June 30, 2025, denying the courts jurisdiction over action by the US in relation to the detention and treatment of ‘enemy combatants’ (under the Military Commissions Act). The psychologists that designed and implemented the torture techniques were treated as agents of the US, with the same immunity as the state itself. The decision confirms there is no possibility of pursuing damages in US courts.
- 6 April, 2023
UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention finds violations by US, Thailand, Poland, Morocco, Lithuania, Afghanistan and the UK – and calls for “immediate release”
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) reached a decision that all seven states (US, Thailand, Poland, Morocco, Lithuania, Afghanistan, and the UK) involved in Abu Zubaydah’s CIA detention and torture share responsibility for the ongoing violations of his rights. Ongoing violations at Guantánamo were found to amount arbitrary detention, torture, and may constitute “crime against humanity.” The UNWGAD decided states are responsible in various ways – for carrying out the extraordinary rendition programme, for allowing their territory to be used and in the case of UK for aiding and assisting” by providing questions in the knowledge of his torture. The UNWGAD called for states to ensure his “immediate release”.
- September 2023
UN Human Rights Committee state report calls for accountability and the closure of Guantánamo
The UN Human Rights Committee reviewed the United States human rights record in 2023. On 12 September 2023 his lawyers made submissions on behalf of Abu Zubaydah on rendition and Guantánamo. In its report, the UNHRC expressed its deep continuing concern.
- 26 November, 2024 - 9 July, 2025
UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearance calls for release
On 26 November 2024 the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (UNWGEID) conducted a country visit to Lithuania. In its observations it expressed “concern that, despite the unanimous recognition by multiple international mechanisms of Lithuania’s involvement in the extraordinary renditions programme … there has not been until today an official acknowledgment by Lithuanian authorities of their international responsibility, nor have they issued any public apologies.” It called for investigation, trainings and commemorative plaques as part of guarantees of non-repetition. On 9 July 2025, the UNWGEID submitted its full report, in which it reiterated these findings, recalled the UNWGAD findings regarding immediate release and the obligation of States, including Lithuania, “to proactively offer their territory for the prompt relocation of Mr. Zubaydah.”
- 18 December, 2024 - January 2025
Unprecedented call by UN and other experts to President Biden to Release Abu Zubaydah
On 18 December 2024, 100 prominent human rights experts urge President Biden to release Abu Zubaydah before leaving office. The letter is here.
In January 2025, a group of UN Special Rapporteurs and Working Groups also took the unprecedented step to call for his immediate release, reflecting the grave ongoing violations of his rights established by many expert bodies. The UN Experts call for release of Abu Zubaydah from Guantánamo is here.
- January 2026
UK settles civil suit with Abu Zubaydah
In January 2026, the UK government reached a settlement with Abu Zubaydah, agreeing to pay a substantial sum to bring to an end his civil claim against the UK for the complicity in his torture and rendition. The civil suit in the UK alleged that the UK’s conduct, by sending questions to the CIA to be put to Abu Zubaydah, despite knowledge of his torture, amounted to multiple torts by the UK security and intelligence services. The settlement was described by his lawyers as materially and symbolically significant but insufficient. [See press statement here.]
- 2024 - Present
Exhibitions of Abu Zubaydah’s Art work
While he still cannot communicate directly with the outside world, some of his art work has been declassified. A series of exhibitions of Abu Zubaydah’s artwork, alongside the judgments and decisions in his favour (“Art & Justice: Abu Zubaydah”) are underway.
Find out more about the exhibitions here