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Starting in 2002, the American government detained 22 Uyghurs in the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp. The last 3 Uyghur detainees, Yusef Abbas, Hajiakbar Abdulghupur and Saidullah Khali, were released from Guantanamo on December 29, 2013, and later transferred to Slovakia. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Uyghurs are an ethnic group from Central Asia, native to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Western China. [5] Since the People's Republic of China gained control of Xinjiang in 1949, Uyghurs have led a series of rebellions and uprisings against the Chinese, gaining intense coverage in the 90s [6] and early 2000s, culminating in a series of protests, demonstrations, and terrorist attacks. Uyghurs have also frequently called for the international recognition of their own state through the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which the United States used to recognize as a terrorist group. [7]
The Washington Post reported on August 24, 2005, that fifteen Uyghurs had been determined to be "No longer enemy combatants" (NLECs). [8] The Post reported that detainees who had been classified as NLEC were, not only still being incarcerated, but one was shackled to the floor for reasons not disclosed by his attorney. Five of these Uyghurs, who had filed for writs of habeas corpus , were transported to Albania on May 5, 2006, just prior to a scheduled judicial review of their petitions. The other seventeen obtained writs of habeas corpus in 2008.
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Several of the detainees admitted receiving training on the AK-47, including Bahtiyar Mahnut, Yusef Abbas, and Abdul Hehim. [9] They described being trained by East Turkestan Islamic Movement leaders Abdul Haq and Hassan Maksum. At least one described being trained on a pistol.[ clarification needed ]
The Uyghurs who were present at the alleged camp reported that they did not expect their camp to be bombed.[ citation needed ] Some of them acknowledged that they had heard of the September 11 attacks on the radio, but none of them knew that the Taliban were accused of involvement.[ citation needed ] They all acknowledged having fled the camp when it was bombed. They all stated that they were unarmed. One of the Uyghurs said Maksum was killed in the bombing.[ citation needed ]
None of the Uyghurs described seeing the United States as an enemy. All of the Uyghurs mentioned the People's Republic of China and described its government as an oppressive occupation. Some of the Uyghurs said that they sought out the training in order to go back to China and defend their fellow Uyghurs against their Chinese occupiers. Some of the other Uyghurs said they sought out the camp of fellow Uyghurs because they were waiting for a visa to Iran, one of the countries they had to pass through on their way to Turkey.[ citation needed ] They had heard that Turkey would grant them political asylum.[ citation needed ]
From July 2004 through March 2005, all 568 of the detainees held at Guantanamo had their detention reviewed by Combatant Status Review Tribunals. 38 of the detainees were determined to be NLEC. Five Uyghurs were among the 38 detainees determined not to have been enemy combatants, and were transferred from the main detention camp to Camp Iguana.
This conclusion was remarked on by the first Denbeaux study, that pointed out that many of the detainees who remained incarcerated had faced much less serious allegations than the Uyghurs had faced.
On May 10, 2006, Radio Free Asia reported that the five Uyghurs transported to Albania were the only Uyghurs who had been moved to Camp Iguana. [10]
In September 2007, the Department of Defense published dossiers prepared from the unclassified documents arising from the captives' Combatant Status Review Tribunals. [11] Information paper: Uighur Detainee Population at JTF-GTMO
An article about the Uyghurs' appeal, in The Jurist , citing the Fifth Denbeaux Report: The no-hearing hearings, called the Uighur's Combatant Status Review Tribunals "show trials". [12] In April 2007, Sabin Willett, a lawyer for the Uyghurs, described their situation as:
No country will take them because either they've read all the newspapers printing claims by U.S. authorities that Guantanamo is a place where the worst of the worst are being held, and they believe that it's true, or, these countries say, 'Well if these guys are innocent, then why don't you, the United States, take them? Why won't you take them if they're not bad guys?' And the U.S. doesn't really have a good answer for that.
— Sabin Willett [13]
None of the Uyghurs wanted to be returned to China. The United States declined to grant the Uyghurs political asylum, or to allow them parole, or even freedom on the naval base.
Some of the Uyghurs had lawyers who volunteered to help them pursue a writ of habeas corpus , which would have been one step in getting them freed from U.S. detention.
In the case of Qassim v. Bush , those Uyghurs argued for their writ of habeas corpus in United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was scheduled to hear arguments on Monday May 8, 2006. Five of the Uyghurs were transported to Albania, on Friday May 5, 2006; the United States officials filed an emergency motion to dismiss later that day. The court dismissed the case as moot. [14]
Barbara Olshansky, one of the Uyghur's lawyers, characterized the sudden transfer as an attempt to: "... avoid having to answer in court for keeping innocent men in jail, [15] "
Some press reports state that the Uyghurs have been granted political asylum in Albania. But the U.S. government press release merely states that they are applying for asylum in Albania.
On May 9, 2006, the Associated Press reported that the People's Republic of China (PRC) denounced the transfer of custody. [16] [17] The PRC called the transfer of the Uyghurs to Albania a violation of international law. Albania agreed to examine the evidence against the men.
Radio Free Asia reports that the five were staying at a National Center for Refugees in a Tirana suburb. [10]
On May 24, 2006, Abu Bakr Qasim told interviewers that he and his compatriots felt isolated in Albania. [18] Qasim described his disappointment with the United States, who the Uyghurs had been hoping would support the Uyghurs quest for Uyghur autonomy. To the BBC he said that "Guantanamo was a five-year nightmare. We're trying to forget it". [19]
In an interview with ABC News Qasim said that members of the American-Uyghur community had come forward and assured the U.S. government that they would help him and his compatriots adapt to life in the United States, if they were given asylum there. [20]
On June 19, 2008, the Associated Press reported that Adel Abdu Al-Hakim had been denied political asylum in Sweden. [21] Sten De Geer, his Swedish lawyer, plans to appeal the ruling, because Albania will not allow his wife and children to join him.
On February 9, 2009, Reuters reported that the five Uyghurs in Albania had heard from the seventeen Uyghurs left behind in Guantanamo, and that their conditions had improved. [22]
An article in the December 5, 2006, edition of The Washington Post reported on a legal appeal launched on behalf of seven of the Uyghurs who remained in detention in Guantanamo. [23] According to their lawyers, the evidence against them were essentially identical to that against the five Uyghurs who were released and that the process by which their "enemy combatant" status had been determined and reviewed was flawed. [23] The article went on to quote current and former officials in Washington who said the group that the Uyghurs were accused of belonging to had been was added to the State Department's list of Terrorist organizations in return for securing approval from the PRC to the then imminent U.S. invasion of Iraq. [23] In response to the appeal, Guantanamo spokesman, Commander Jeffrey Gordon said: "There is a significant amount of evidence, both unclassified and classified, which supports detention by U.S. forces," [24] According to the Associated Press Gordon told reporters that "the seven had 'multiple' reviews and were properly classified as enemy combatants."
A May 2008 report by the Inspector General of the United States Department of Justice claimed that American military interrogators appeared to have collaborated with visiting Chinese officials at Guantánamo Bay to enact sleep deprivation of the Uyghur detainees. [25] [26] A bipartisan Senate Armed Services Committee report, released in part in December 2008 and in full in April 2009, concluded that the legal authorization of enhanced interrogation techniques led directly to the abuse and killings of prisoners in US military facilities. Brutal prisoner abuse practices which were believed to have originated in Chinese torture techniques to extract false confessions from American POWs migrated from Guantanamo Bay to Afghanistan, then to Iraq and Abu Ghraib. [27] [28]
On March 11, 2007, the Boston Globe reported that the 17 remaining Uyghur captives had been transferred to the newly built Camp Six, in Guantanamo. [29] The Globe reports that the Uyghurs are held for 22 hours a day in cells without natural light.
The Globe points out that prior to their detention in Camp Six, they were able to socialize with one another, but that they couldn't speak to the prisoners in neighboring cells because none of them speak Arabic or Pashto. The Globe quotes Sabin Willett, the Uyghur's lawyer, who reports that, consequently, there has been a serious decline in the Uyghur's mental health.
According to the Globe: "The military says the Uighurs were put there either because they attacked guards or trashed their quarters during the riot last May." [29]
The Globe quotes Sabin Willett's explanation for the Uyghur's new harsher detention. Willett: "... links their assignment to Camp Six to a filing he made seeking their release." [29]
In the Summer of 2006, the habeas corpus submissions known as Hamdan v. Rumsfeld reached the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled the Executive Branch lacked the Constitutional authority to initiate military commissions to try Guantanamo captives. However, it also ruled that the United States Congress did have the authority to set up military commissions. In the fall of 2006, Congress passed the Military Commissions Act, setting up military commissions similar to those initially set up by the Executive Branch.
The Act also stripped captives of the right to file habeas corpus submissions in the US Court system. [13] The earlier Detainee Treatment Act, passed on December 31, 2005, had stripped captives of the right to initiate new habeas corpus submissions, while leaving existing habeas corpus motions in progress.
The Detainee Treatment Act had explicitly authorized an appeal process for Combatant Status Review Tribunals which failed to follow the military's own rules. [13] And Sabin Willet, the Uyghur's lawyer, has chosen to initiate appeals of the Uyghur's Combatant Status Review Tribunals.
Each Uighurs' CSRT was inconsistent with the standards and procedures specified by the Secretary of Defense, because none appropriately applied the definition of 'Enemy Combatant'. The CSRT Procedures defined an 'enemy combatant' as: 'an individual who was part of or supporting the Taliban or al-Qaida forces, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners.'
However, Willet argues, the Combatant Status Review Tribunals failed to consider the interrogator's conclusions that the Uyghurs were not enemies, had not supported the Taliban, and had not engaged in hostilities. [13]
Assistant Attorney General Peter D. Keisler led the response team. Keisler's team accused Willet of trying to: [13]
... recreate the habeas regime that Congress recently abolished.
They said the argument boiled down to: [13]
[Should] detainees captured on a battlefield during a time of war, be given unprecedented access to our nations courts and to classified information, even after Congress emphatically rejected such an approach?
The Uyghurs can not be repatriated to China because domestic U.S. law proscribes deporting individuals to countries where they are likely to be abused. [30]
The Bush administration conducted bilateral negotiations with a number of other countries, to accept captives who had been cleared for release, with very limited success. Frustrated British officials who were negotiating for the return of Guantanamo captives who had been granted UK residency permission prior to their capture leaked the conditions Bush administration officials were trying to insist upon. Bush officials were insisting that Britain either indefinitely incarcerate the men, upon their arrival—or they place them under round the clock surveillance.
The Asia Times reported, on November 4, 2004, that there had been internal discussion over how the US could release Uyghurs, without putting their safety at risk. [30]
On June 2, 2008, The Globe and Mail reported that recently released documents suggested that the Government of Canada had come close to offering asylum to the Uyghurs. [31] The Globe reports that Canadian officials held back from offering the Uyghur captives asylum out of fear that the PRC government would retaliate against Huseyin Celil, a Canadian citizen of Uyghur background, who was in Chinese custody.
On February 4, 2009, The Globe and Mail reported that Hassan Anvar's refugee claim, and the refugee claims of two of his compatriots were close to completion. [32] [33] [34] The article quoted Mehmet Tohti, a Uyghur human rights activist who stated that he had met with Immigration Minister Jason Kenney. According to the Globe, Tohti claimed there had been a positive consensus to admit Anvar, and two men whose lawyers haven't authorized their names to be released. According to the Canwest News Service , Kenney is considering issuing special ministerial permits for the three Uyghurs. According to Reuters , Alyshan Velshi, from Kenney's office, disputed whether Canada was close to accepting any Uyghurs. [35] The other fourteen Uyghurs hadn't yet satisfied an obligation Canada expects of refugee claimants—that they establish their identity.
The Don Valley Refugee Resettlement Organization is sponsoring Hassan Anvar's refugee claim. [32] The archdiocese of Montreal is sponsoring the other two men. Their sponsors will support the men with housing and clothing, if they are admitted.
An article published by the Associated Press on October 10, 2008, quoted Elshat Hassan and Nury Turkel, two leaders of the Uyghur American Association, about plans for American-Uyghurs to help the Uyghur detainees acclimatize, once they have been admitted to the USA. [36] Court records included a detailed plan by the UAA to assist Uyghur detainees in resettling in the United States. [37]
In February 2009, the Munich city council passed a motion to invite the remaining seventeen Uyghurs to settle in Munich, [38] home to the largest community of Uyghurs outside of China. [39]
In June 2009, Palauan President Johnson Toribiong agreed to "temporarily resettle" up to seventeen of the Uyghur detainees, at the United States' request. [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46]
On September 10, 2009, The Times reported that three of the Uyghurs, Dawut Abdurehim and Anwar Assan, and another man whose identity has not been made public, have accepted the invitation to be transferred to asylum in Palau. [47]
On September 19, 2009, Fox News reported that in the week since the first announcement three further Uyghurs agreed to be transferred to Palau. [48] Fox reported that five of the other Uyghurs had refused to speak with Palau officials.
On October 31, 2009, Ahmad Tourson, Abdul Ghappar Abdul Rahman, Edham Mamet, Anwar Hassan, Dawut Abdurehim and Adel Noori were reported to have been transferred to Palau. [49] [50] [51] [52] [53]
On June 29, 2015, Nathan Vanderklippe, reporting in The Globe and Mail, wrote that all the Uyghurs had quietly left Palau. [54] [55] The Globe confirmed that Palau's agreement to give refuge to the Uyghurs was reached after the USA agreed to various secret payments. Those payments included $93,333 to cover each Uyghurs living expenses. The Globe confirmed that controversy still surrounded former President Johnson Toribiong who had used some of those funds to billet the Uyghurs in houses belonging to his relatives.
Vanderklippe reported that the men had never felt they could fit in with the Palauans. [54] Some of the men compared Palau with a lusher, larger Guantanamo. Some of the men were able to bring their wives to Palau. Attempts to hold most regular jobs failed, due to cultural differences. Attempts to use their traditional leather-working skills to be self-employed failed. Eventually, all six men were employed as night-time security guards, a job that did not require interaction with Palauans.
Tragically, one of the men's young toddler, conceived and born on Palau, died after he fell off a balcony. [54] According to Vanderklippe, the men's departure from Palau was quietly arranged with cooperation with American officials. He reported they left, one or two at a time, on commercial flights. Palauan officials would not share the Uyghurs destination.
In September 2018, some Indian newspapers reported that a suspected militant had been radicalized when he lived in Palau. [56] [57] The Australian Broadcasting Corporation considered the credibility of this claim, noting that the Indian man's five years in Palau overlapped with the Uyghurs. [55]
On June 11, 2009, Abdul Helil Mamut, Huzaifa Parhat, Emam Abdulahat and Jalal Jalaladin [58] arrived in the British overseas territory of Bermuda. [59] The cost of the relocation will be borne by the United States, while the government of Bermuda would arrange documentation, residence and housing. [60]
According to their lawyers, the four men will be "guest workers" in Bermuda; [61] according to Premier of Bermuda Ewart Brown, they will be given the opportunity to become naturalised "citizens" — currently impossible under Bermudian law, and a right which many residents, locally born and raised, do not have [62] — with the ability to eventually travel freely. [60] The decision was made without the knowledge of Richard Gozney, the Governor of Bermuda, responsible for foreign affairs and security matters, who only found out after their arrival. [63] Brown's promise of "citizenship" was apparently made without the knowledge of the British government, whose citizenship is being offered. The offer of asylum was strongly criticised both within Bermuda and by the UK. This was not the first time that Bermuda hosted refugees; during the 1970s, five people from Vietnam were allowed into the country; only one remains there, following the emigration of three others and the death of the fifth. [64] The following day, the Opposition United Bermuda Party moved for a motion of no confidence against Brown, [65] while the British government declared its intentions to review its legal relationship with the territory. [66]
On September 29, 2011, the Antigua Observer quoted Henry Bellingham the United Kingdom's Overseas Territories Minister on the UK's expectation that the US would find a permanent home for the four Uyghurs in another country. [67]
This is something that we weren't consulted on by the last (Brown) administration. We have spoken to the United States about it — it's our understanding that the arrangement was not to be permanent and we're looking to the US State Department to find a permanent solution. We're working with them to try and achieve that.
On April 19, 2012, the Associated Press reported that Abdul Razakah and Hammad Memet had been transferred to El Salvador. [68] Ben Fox, writing for the Associated Press wrote that the men had already begun to learn Spanish. El Salvador officials said the men had been given refuge because many El Salvador citizens had been allowed refuge in other countries when their country was hit by civil war.
In September 2013, El Salvador reported that both men quietly slipped out of El Salvador, and that their destination was unknown but presumed to be Turkey. [69]
On December 27, 2013, it was announced that the Government of Slovakia would give asylum to the three remaining Uyghurs. [70] When making the announcement the Government of Slovakia said that the three men had "never been suspected of nor charged with a criminal act of terrorism". A long-standing sticking point in getting third countries to accept former captives is that US negotiators wanted those countries to agree to impose draconian and expensive security measures on the former captives. Carol Rosenberg, of the Miami Herald, the journalist who has provided the most extensive coverage of the Guantanamo camp, described the announcement, following the releases of three other groups of men, earlier in December, marked a "significant milestone". [71]
Rosenberg reported that the US military had transferred Yusef Abbas, Hajiakbar Abdulghuper and Saidullah Khalik, to Slovakia on December 30, 2013, in a "secret operation". [72] Rosenberg quoted from a press release US District Court Judge Ricardo Urbina had prepared to be made public after the last Uyghur was transferred, where he expressed his dissatisfaction with the Obama administration for not honoring his original release order.
On June 12, 2008, the United States Supreme Court ruled on Boumediene v. Bush . Its ruling overturned aspects of the Detainee Treatment Act and Military Commissions Act, allowing Guantanamo captives to access the US justice system for habeas petitions.
On Monday, June 23, 2008, it was announced that a three judge Federal court of appeal had ruled, in Parhat v. Gates , on Friday, June 20, 2008, that the determination of Hozaifa Parhat's Combatant Status Review Tribunal was "invalid". [73] [74] [75]
On July 7, 2008, a petition was filed on behalf of the seventeen Uyghurs. [76] On August 5, 2008, the United States Department of Justice opposed Parhat being released in the US, and to having a judgment made on his habeas petition. [77] The Government's opposition filing was 22 pages long.
In early August 2008, US District Court Judge Ricardo M. Urbina declined to rule in favor of transferring six of the Uyghurs from Camp 6 where captives are held in solitary confinement to Camp 4 where they live in communal barracks with fellow captives. [78] [79] [80] [81] [82] Urbina's nine-page memorandum opinion addressed the needs of Hammad Memet, Khalid Ali, Edham Mamet, Bahtiyar Mahnut, Arkin Mahmud, Adel Noori.
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On September 30, 2008, Gregory Katsas, Assistant Attorney General filed a "notice of status" for the remaining Uyghur captives—stating that they would no longer be classed as "enemy combatants". [83] [84] According to The AM Law Daily the Department of Justice was scheduled to appear before Ricardo M Urbina on October 7, 2008, to defend classifying the men as enemy combatants.
Although they were no longer considered "enemy combatants" camp authorities continued to hold six of the men in solitary confinement. [83]
On Tuesday October 7, 2008, US District Court Judge Ricardo Urbina ruled that the Uyghurs had to be brought to the US to appear in his court in Washington DC on Friday, 10 October 2008. [85]
The United States Department of Justice filed an emergency motion to stay the Uyghurs' admission to the US. [86] On October 8, 2008, a three judge appeal panel granted the emergency motion to stay the Uyghur's transfer. The judges stay was to enable the appeals court to consider the merits of the parties' arguments. The parties to file briefs by October 16, 2008.
On October 16, 2008, Clint Williamson, the State Department official responsible for negotiating a new home for the captives, complained that the Justice Department's description of the Uyghurs had undermined his efforts. [87] Williamson is the State Department's ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues. The New York Times quoted Williamson's comment about cancelling his overseas trips following the Department of Justice claims:
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On October 20, 2009, the United States Supreme Court announced it would hear an appeal filed on behalf of the Uyghurs, as to whether Justice Leon had the authority to order the Uyghurs to be released in the United States. [88] [89] [90] [91] [92] A panel of appeal court judges had overruled Leon. The appeal was filed on behalf of Hazaifa Parhat and seven other of the Uyghur captives. But the court's ruling would apply to all the Uyghurs, and would affect the appeals of other captives whose habeas hearings have overturned their CSR Tribunals. On March 1, 2010, the Supreme Court ruled in a per curiam decision that no court had yet ruled on this case in light of the offers of resettlement. Therefore, the Supreme Court declined to rule on the question of whether a federal court has the right to release the prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, as "[The Supreme Court is] a court of review, not of first view."
The Turkistan Islamic Party in the 2nd issue of its magazine "Islamic Turkistan" discussed the situation of Uyghur Turkistan Islamic Party members in Guantanamo Bay which was getting media attention. [93]
ISN | Name | Arrival date | Release date | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
00102 | Edham Mamet | 2002-01-20 | 2009-10-31 |
| |
00103 | Arkin Mahmud | 2002-06-18 | 2010-02-04 |
| |
00201 | 2002-01-21 | 2009-10-31 | |||
00219 | 2002-06-08 | 2012-04-18 |
| ||
00250 | Hassan Anvar | 2002-02-07 | 2009-10-31 |
| |
00260 | Ahmed Adil | 2002-02-09 | 2006-05-05 |
| |
00275 | Yusef Abbas | 2002-06-08 | 2013-12-30 |
| |
00276 | Akhdar Qasem Basit | 2002-06-10 | 2006-05-05 | ||
00277 | Bahtiyar Mahnut | 2002-06-10 | 2010-02-04 |
| |
00278 | Abdul Helil Mamut | 2002-06-10 | 2009-06-11 |
| |
00279 | Haji Mohammed Ayub | 2002-06-10 | 2006-05-05 | ||
00280 | 2013-12-30 |
| |||
00281 | Abdul Ghappar Abdul Rahman | 2002-06-10 | 2009-10-31 |
| |
00282 | 2013-12-30 | ||||
00283 | Abu Bakr Qasim | 2002-06-10 | 2006-05-05 | ||
00285 | Abdullah Abdulqadirakhun | 2002-06-12 | 2009-06-11 |
| |
00289 | 2002-06-12 | 2009-10-31 | |||
00293 | Adel Abdulhehim | 2002-06-10 | 2006-05-05 | ||
00295 | Emam Abdulahat | 2002-06-14 | 2009-06-11 | ||
00320 | Hozaifa Parhat | 2002-05-03 | 2009-06-11 |
| |
00328 | Hammad Memet | 2002-05-03 | 2012-04-18 |
| |
00584 | Adel Noori | 2002-05-05 | 2009-10-31 |
On July 18, 2008, George M. Clarke III informed the US District Court that [108]
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Radio Free Asia named the five released Uyghurs, [10] but the report identified the Uyghurs with different transliterations than that used in the U.S. press release: Ababehir Qasim, Adil Abdulhakim, Ayuphaji Mahomet, Ahter and Ahmet.
Abu Bakker Qassim is a Uyghur from China's western frontier, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region who was held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 283.
The Administrative Review Board is a United States military body that conducts an annual review of the detainees held by the United States in Camp Delta at the United States Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Adel Noori, is a Uyghur refugee who was wrongly imprisoned for more than 7 years in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 584 Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts report that he was born on November 12, 1979, in Xinjiang, China.
Haji Mohammed Ayub is a citizen of China, who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. The Department of Defense reports he was born on April 15, 1984, in Toqquztash, China.
Ahmed Adil is a citizen of China who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps in Cuba.
Adel Abdulhehim or Adel Abdul Hakim is a citizen of the People's Republic of China from the Uighur ethnic group. He was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States-controlled Guantanamo Bay detainment camps in Cuba.Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts report he was born on October 10, 1974, in Ghulja, Xinjiang.
Arkin Mahmud is a Uyghur refugee best known for the seven and a half years he spent in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.
Ahmad Tourson or Ahmad Abdulahad, is a Uyghur refugee unlawfully detained for more than seven years in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps. The detention occurred despite becoming clear early on that he was innocent. The Department of Defense reports that Tourson was born on January 26, 1971, in Xinjiang Province, China, and assigned him the Internment Serial Number 201. Tourson is one of approximately two dozen detainees from the Uighur ethnic group.
Khalil Mamut is a Uyghur refugee, imprisoned for seven years at the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.
Abdullah Abdulqadirakhun is a Uyghur refugee, who was held for more than seven years in Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.
Dawut Abdurehim is a Uyghur refugee best known for the more than seven years he spent in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. Abdulrehim is one of 22 Uighurs who have been held in Guantanamo for many years despite it becoming clear early on that they were innocent.
Peter Sabin Willett, known as Sabin Willett, is an American lawyer and novelist, a partner with the Philadelphia-based law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, formerly a partner at Bingham McCutchen. He lives near Boston, Massachusetts. He is perhaps best known as a defense lawyer for several Uighur prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp.
No Longer Enemy Combatant (NLEC) is a term used by the U.S. military for a group of 38 Guantanamo detainees whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) determined they were not "enemy combatants". None of them were released right away. Ten of them were allowed to move to the more comfortable Camp Iguana. Others, such as Sami Al Laithi, remained in solitary confinement.
Edham Mamet is a Uyghur refugee best known for the more than seven years he spent in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. He was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001. Edham Mamet is one of the 22 Uighurs held in Guantanamo for many years despite the fact that it became clear early on that they were innocent.
Anwar Hassan is a Chinese Uyghur refugee who was wrongly imprisoned for more than seven years in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps.
Kiyemba v. Bush (Civil Action No. 05-cv-01509) is a petition for habeas corpus filed on behalf of Jamal Kiyemba, a Ugandan citizen formerly held in extrajudicial detention in the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. Mr. Kiyemba is the next friend of each of the nine Uighur petitioners, Abdusabur, Abdusamad, Abdunasir, Hammad, Hudhaifa, Jalaal, Khalid, Saabir, and Saadiq, who seek the writ of habeas corpus through the petition
Omar Said Salim Al Dayi, also known as Omar Said Salem Adayn and Omer Saeed Salem Al Daini, is held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 549.
Their story may be the strangest one you'll hear out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Even after being cleared of any wrongdoing, five innocent men were kept captive at the detention center at Guantanamo.
Despite the Uighurs' innocence, they have remained in custody. The Uighurs will face almost certain torture if they are returned to China. While Albania previously resettled five men, as many as 100 countries have refused to accept the remaining Uighur detainees in the face of Chinese opposition.
U.S. officials eventually declared the Uighurs innocent of any wrongdoing and authorized their release, but they couldn't be sent back to China because U.S. law forbids deporting someone to a country where they are likely to face torture or persecution.
In late 2003, the Pentagon quietly decided that 15 Chinese Muslims detained at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could be released.
But Ottawa pulled back at the last minute, in large part, sources say, because of fears of what would happen to Mr. Celil, also a member of China's Uyghur minority, if the transfer went ahead - Beijing has lobbied furiously to keep any nation from accepting the Guantanamo Bay detainees.
There was a positive consensus," Mr. Tohti said of his meeting with Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and senior advisers to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon. "They were not against it.
"The reports that Canada is close to accepting three Uighur Guantanamo Bay detainees are false," said Kenney spokesman Alykhan Velshi.
In exchange for money from the U.S. – including $93,333 (U.S.) for each man – Palau allowed the Uyghurs to trade life behind barbed-wire fences for life in one of earth's most isolated places, an island chain with a local population of just 20,000.
China had called them "terrorist suspects" but the US Government determined they were not enemy combatants. They have all since left Palau.
Arun further said, "Zama had been to Republic of Palau near Philippines and worked there from 2008 to 2012.
Alleged Hizbul Mujahideen operative, Qamar-uz-Zama, was radicalised by Muslim extremist groups during his stay in Republic of Palau, an island country near the Philippines between 2008 and 2012, said UP Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) officials.
The US refused to resettle them within its borders, and a deal was struck with Brown, who quit as Premier last October before leaving politics altogether. Brown said he did it as a humanitarian gesture.
Two men from western China who had been held for nearly a decade without charge at the Guantanamo Bay prison amid a diplomatic struggle to find them homes, have been resettled in El Salvador, the U.S. military said Thursday.
"As in the first case, this is about transporting people who have ," the ministry said in an emailed statement.
In rapid succession, the U.S. in December sent Guantánamo prisoners home to Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Sudan, then capped the year with a "significant milestone" deal that resettled three long-held Uighur captives in Slovakia.
Yusef Abbas, 38, Hajiakbar Abdulghuper, 39, and Saidullah Khalik, 36, left the remote U.S. Navy base in a secret operation on Monday, according to U.S. government sources. They had spent about a dozen years in U.S. military custody.
Not mentioned publicly was the fact that, until Jura accepted the men's asylum claims, one of them, Arkin Mahmud, appeared to stuck at Guantánamo, his only way out being to hope that the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the Uighurs' case last year, would overturn last February's appeals court ruling, and allow cleared prisoners who cannot be repatriated into the United States.
They say that six months after their arrival in Switzerland, they are gradually acclimating to their new lives, but that the trauma of their experiences is still present.
Switzerland granted Arkin and Bahtiyar Mahmud asylum on humanitarian grounds. The brothers now live in canton Jura and, a short while ago, met the media for the first time.
The two Uighurs arrived in canton Jura on March 23 with one living in the town of Delémont and the other in Courroux. They were admitted to Switzerland on humanitarian grounds.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Yusef Abbas is a 33- or 34-year-old citizen of China. ... He was transferred to Slovakia on Dec. 31, 2013.
Saidullah Khalik is a 37-year-old citizen of China. ... He was transferred to Slovakia on Dec. 31, 2013.
Abdulghappar Turkistani, 35, is one of a group of 17 Chinese Muslims who have been held at the US camp for six years.
Hajiakbar Abdulghupur is a 39- or 40-year-old citizen of China. ... He was transferred to Slovakia on Dec. 31, 2013.