Guantanamo and back - Story of Bin Laden's driver Salim Hamdan

Salim Hamdan, the Yemeni driver of Osama Bin Laden was captured in 2001 and sent to Guantanamo Bay detention centre. In 2004, his counsel argued that the military the commission lacked the protections required under Geneva Conventions and US Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Guantanamo and back - Story of Bin Laden's driver Salim Hamdan. (Graphics | Aamir Hamza) 

Soon after the 9/11 incident, in November of 2001, the then US President George Bush issued an executive order which bypassed the Congress and authorized the trial of prisoners considered 'enemy combatants' through a military commission. The order made it clear the foreign prisoners would have no ability to 'invoke rights under any other body of law, U.S or international'. (Photo | Associated Press)

Salim Ahmed Hamdan (In picture), a Yemeni citizen was the driver and bodyguard of Al-Qaida chief Osama Bin Laden. He was captured by allied forces and turned over to United States during the Afghan invasion of 2001. He was sent to the detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba by US in 2002. (Photo | Associated Press)

Hamdan was detained in a windowless cell for almost a year in Guantanamo. He was tortured, sexually harassed and deprived of sleep by interrogators during his term. (Representational Photo | Associated Press)

He was charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism in 2004 and the Bush administration arranged him to be tried before a military commission. The move was challenged in a US District Court by Hamdan's counsel, Charles D Swift , arguing that the commission lacked the protections required under Geneva Conventions and US Uniform Code of Military Justice. (Representational Photo | Associated Press)

On 29 June 2006, The Supreme Court of the United States of America held that the military commissions set up by the George Bush Jr administration for trying the inmates at the controversial Guantanamo Bay violate the Uniform Code of Justice and four Geneva Conventions of 1949 (referring to the treatment of war prisoners). (Photo | Associated Press)

The court ruled that the Bush administration went to far with their authority and that they had established military commissions without the consent of Congress. (Photo | Associated Press)

During May 2007, Hamdan was indicted again under the Military Commissions Act enacted by the Congress in September 2006. (Photo | 'The Oath' screen grab via Zeitgeist Films/Laura Poitras)

In August 2008, Hamdan was absolved of the collusion charges against him and the court found him guilty of giving material support - for being Bin Laden's driver. He was granted respite for the five year period he spent in prison. (Photo | Associated Press)

Hamdan was expedited to Yemen, to complete his remaining term and was freed by Yemeni authorities in January 2009. In 2012, Hamdan's conviction was overturned by The US Appeals Court for the District of Columbia, acquitting him of all the charges. (Photo | 'The Oath' screen grab via Zeitgeist Films/Laura Poitras)

The ruling, though not addressing the entire inmate situation in Guantanamo, was significant considering it defined the ability of the President to use his executive power. (Photo | Associated Press)