continued detention without charge of individuals apprehended in connection with the international armed conflict in Afghanistan violates the prohibition of arbitrary detention. REASONS FOR DETENTION 164. Credible reports and interviews with former detainees indicate that some detainees were being held for the sole purpose of intelligence gathering, rather than for reasons permitted by law.215 Hajj Boudella, Lakhdar Boumediene and Mustafa Ait Idir all maintain that they still do not know the reasons why they were held in Guantánamo. Boumediene said “[I] spent seven and a half years [in Guantánamo], and now five years later, I still do not know why. I still have no idea why I was there”. He also recalled one interrogator telling him that the US government had nothing on him but that they needed him to testify against others.216 In the same vein, Ait Idir reported that he was told he was being detained so that he could provide information on Bosnia and Herzegovina, individuals and rescue organizations.217 These three detainees were held in Guantánamo for over six years. Holding persons for prolonged periods for the sole purpose of intelligence gathering amounts to unlawful detention.218 Furthermore, both international humanitarian and human rights law mandate that those detained be promptly informed of the reasons for their detention.219 Accordingly, the US government may have violated international standards by detaining individuals for the sole purpose of intelligence gathering and by failing to inform detainees of the reasons for their detention. CONTINUED AND INDEFINITE DETENTION AT GUANTÁNAMO 165. In 2010, the Guantánamo Review Task Force approved 48 detainees for “continued detention under the AUMF”.220 It considered a detainee to fall under this category if: (1) the detainee was a threat to US national security that could not be sufficiently mitigated; (2) the detainee could not feasibly be prosecuted in any forum; and (3) the detainee could continue to be detained without criminal charges under the AUMF. The third requirement was assessed by the Task Force in consultation with the Department of Justice based on their legal analysis of the detainee’s detention under the AUMF and “the government’s 215 For instance, in 2006, the UN Working Group on arbitrary detention and several UN Special Rapporteurs reported that credible sources had revealed that the purpose of the ongoing detention of detainees was not to prevent detainees from returning to the battlefield to take up arms against the United States, but to gather information and intelligence on al Qaeda. UN Special Procedures, “Situation of detainees at Guantánamo Bay”, op. cit., note 23, para. 23. 216 ODIHR interview with Lakhdar Boumediene, 21 June 2014. Lakhdar Boumediene was transferred to France on May 15, 2009. 217 ODIHR interview with Mustafa Ait Idir and Hajj Boudella, 12 July 2014. Mustafa Ait Idir and Hajj Boudella were transferred to Bosnia and Herzegovina on December 16, 2008. During his interview with ODIHR, Ait Idir said he was told to forget about the alleged plot to attack the US Embassy in Sarajevo and to focus on providing information on organizations and Arabs in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 218 United States Supreme Court, Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, op. cit., note 47: “Certainly, we agree that indefinite detention for the purpose of interrogation is not authorized”; UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, Report to the Human Rights Council, A/HRC/10/3, op. cit., note 131, para. 38. 219 API, Art. 75(3); ICCPR, Art. 9(2). 220 “Final Report”, Guantánamo Review Task Force, op. cit., note 84, p. 23. 67