Tipton Three The Tipton Three is the collective name given to three British citizens from Tipton , England , who were held in extrajudicial detention by the United States government for two years in Guantanamo Bay detainment camp in Cuba . Ruhal Ahmed was born on March 11 , 1981 ; Asif Iqbal was born on April 24 , 1981 ; the United States Department of Defense estimated that Shafiq Rasul was born in 1977 . Other reports state he was only a couple of years older than his friends . The three men in their early 20s were captured in Afghanistan in 2001 , transferred to United States Army custody and transported to Guantanamo , where they were detained as enemy combatants . Their families were not told of their whereabouts until the British Foreign Office informed them in January 2002 . They were three of nine Britons detained at Guantanamo . After negotiations between the governments and British assessment of their interrogations , the men were repatriated to the United Kingdom in March 2004 . They were released without charge the next day . With many others , Shafiq Rasul filed a " habeas corpus " suit in 2004 against the United States government for his detention , in a case that ultimately went to the US Supreme Court . In the landmark , " Rasul v . Bush " ( 2004 ) , the court held that Guantanamo detainees have the right to challenge whether their detention is constitutional in the US courts . The three men were represented in the UK by the lawyer Gareth Peirce . In addition , the Tipton Three and Jamal filed a suit in 2004 against the US government in " Rasul v . Rumsfeld " , challenging its use of torture and religious abuses of detainees . This case was dismissed in April 2009 by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia , based on " limited immunity " of government officials ; the court ruled that such treatment had not been legally defined at the time as prohibited . In December 2009 the US Supreme Court declined to accept the case for hearing , so the lower court ruling stands . The three men were featured as the subjects of " The Road to Guantánamo " ( 2006 ) , a docu - drama about the events directed by the British filmmaker , Michael Winterbottom . People . Ruhal Ahmed . Ruhal Ahmed ( born March 11 , 1981 in Birmingham , West Midlands , England ) is a British citizen . Having been captured in Afghanistan in 2002 , Ahmed was detained without trial for more than two years by the United States , first in Afghanistan , and then in the Guantánamo Bay detention camp , at its naval base in Cuba . It is alleged that his detainee identification number was 110 . ( During an interview , on 23 June 2006 , MSNBC spelled his name as " Ruhel Ahmed " . ) Australia refused Ruhal Ahmed a visa to visit to promote " The Road to Guantanamo " ( 2006 ) , a British docudrama made about the events . He has taken part in a campaign against torture , organized by Amnesty International . Shafiq Rasul . Shafiq Rasul ( born April 15 , 1977 in Dudley , West Midlands , England ) is best known for being treated as an enemy combatant and being held in extrajudicial detention by the United States in its Guantanamo Bay detention camp s . His detainee ID number was 86 . His family discovered his detention when the British Foreign Office contacted them on January 21 , 2002 . He was released in March 2004 , shortly after his return to the United Kingdom , more than three months before " Rasul v . Bush " was decided . Asif Iqbal . Asif Iqbal ( born 24 April 1981 in West Bromwich , West Midlands , England ) is a British citizen who was held in extrajudicial detention as a terror suspect in the United States ' Guantanamo Bay detainment camps in Cuba . Iqbal ' s Guantanamo detainee ID number is 87 . The US Department of Defense reports that Iqbal was born on April 24 , 1981 , in West Bromwich , United Kingdom . Iqbal , and four other Britons , were released on March 9 , 2004 . Iqbal had travelled with , was captured with , and was released with two friends of his , Ruhal Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul , from his home town of Tipton , England , United Kingdom . Iqbal married on 2 July 2005 . Abuse claims . On August 4 , 2004 Iqbal , Ahmed and Rasul released a report on their abuse and humiliation while in US custody . In it , according to the BBC , the three describe significant abuse , including : After the appointment of General Geoffrey Miller as commander of the camp , they said treatment became more harsh , including short shackling and the forced shaving - off of beards . In the report , they allege that those who represented themselves as being from MI5 , or the British Foreign Office , seemed unconcerned with their welfare . In the end , the three falsely confessed ( under force and abusive interrogation ) to being the three previously unidentified faces in an alleged video that showed a meeting between Osama bin Laden and Mohamed Atta . But , the three men were all in Tipton ( as could be documented ) when the meeting occurred . The three were among the first detainees released who gave an alternative view of conditions within the camp to that offered by United States Department of Defense . Representation in other media . " The Road to Guantanamo " ( 2006 ) is a docu - drama about the Tipton Three made by director Michael Winterbottom and based on their accounts . The screenplay was based on the initial account from the three detainees . Media events . Lie Lab . In May 2007 , Ruhal Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul agreed to appear on the Channel 4 reality show , " Lie Lab " . The technology used on the show was developed by Professor Sean Spence from the University of Sheffield . It uses functional magnetic resonance imaging ( fMRI ) to look at the activity in the brain ' s pre - frontal cortex to view how a subject reacts to questioning . Critics of the test have included neuroscientists and legal scholars , who have said the technique is unlikely to accurately measure truth - telling , as there are too many variables affecting results . They think the technique may be useful for additional research . Although he earlier said that he had entered Afghanistan to do charity work , on the program , Ahmed said he had visited an Islamist training camp , where he handled weapons and learned how to use an AK47 . Rasul refused to go through the test . BBC Five Live interview . In January 2010 , Ruhal Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul were interviewed on " Five Live " . They both said they had visited a Taliban training camp , but it was because they were trapped in the province . They had wanted to find out " what was happening " , and the Taliban was the only government operating at the time . The interviewer Victoria observed that Ahmed had said he had handled AK47 guns . Shafiq Rasul said : " Being in Afghanistan , we were at that age where … seeing a gun … you ’ d never seen a gun in the UK … you want to hold it . You want to see what its like . But we were never there to do any training . That ’ s what , that ’ s what , we were just there . We held it to see what it was like . That ’ s how we ’ ve explained it . But it has been taken out of context , saying that ‘ Oh , these guys from the UK , they were at that age , 9 / 11 had just happened , and they were there for terrorist training ’ . But , but – that ’ s not the case . That ’ s not what happened "