Ramzi Binalshibh (Arabic: رمزي بن الشيبة; also transliterated as Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Ramzi bin al-Shaibah, and several other ways; born 1973), is a citizen of Yemen and according to the United States, Germany, and several other countries, a key al-Qaida member who helped in planning the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Ramzi Binalshibh used the name Ramzi Omar while he was in Germany. He claimed that he was a political refugee from Sudan and requested political asylum in 1995. The judge refused his asylum request and Binalshibh returned to the Hadramaut region of Yemen. Binalshibh later received a German visa under his real name.
The Hamburg cell member was refused an entry visa to the United States four times prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks, where he allegedly wanted to join the 19 hijackers. His friend, Zakariyah Essabar, was also denied visas.
Binalshibh was captured in Pakistan on September 11, 2002, after a gunbattle in Karachi. He was subsequently turned over to the United States, which has been incarcerating him without trial in a secret location.
He is wanted by German courts where he shared a Hamburg apartment with Mohammed Atta, the suspected ringleader of the September 11, 2001 hijackers.
However, Germany has deferred a request for extradition pending resolution of Binalshibh's legal status by the United States.
