Seized in a random raid on a mosque in Pakistan in October 2001, he is one of 22 juveniles held in Guantánamo Bay since the prison opened in January 2002, according to lists compiled by the US Department of Defense.

The US authorities have persistently misled the public about whether juveniles are being held in Guantánamo Bay. On BBC Radio 4’s PM programme on 29 January 2004, Jon Manel interviewed Lieutenant Commander Barbara Burfeind at the Department of Defense in Washington:

Lt. Cmdr. Burfeind: We don't plan on, er, detaining, em, juveniles at Guantánamo further. Er, I can't say in terms of the future of anywhere else.

Jon Manel: Why not at Guantánamo anymore?

Lt. Cmdr. Burfeind: Em, they just, I've just been told that they are not planning on having juveniles at Guantánamo.

This was false. According to the DoD’s own lists of prisoners, five prisoners currently at Guantánamo Bay were juveniles at the time of their capture, and 17 others have been released.

Mohammed has stated that he has endured terrible abuse, first in Pakistani custody, and for the last six and half years in US custody, first at the US prison at Kandahar airport and then at Guantánamo, where, he has explained, he has been hung from his wrists on 30 occasions. On one occasion a heavily armoured riot squad slammed his head into the floor of his cell, breaking one of his teeth, and on another occasion a cigarette was stubbed out on his arm by an interrogator. Mohammed says that he receives constant abuse from some of the guards at Guantánamo, and states that much of the abuse stems from his vocal objection to being called a “nigger” by US military personnel.

As a result of the violence against him he has become deeply depressed, and has tried to commit suicide on several occasions.

In August 2007 lawyers from Reprieve visited Chad to meet members of Mohammed’s family and to present his case to the government, in the belief that he will released if the government of Chad engages in serious negotiations with the US government. For now, however, Mohammed remains incarcerated in Guantánamo Bay.

Letters to Mohammed should be sent to:
Mohammed El Gharani
ISN 269
Camp Delta
US Naval Base Guantánamo Bay
Washington, DC 20355
USA