| Abu Bakker Qassim |
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BACKGROUND In late 2001, Qassim was captured along with his compatriot A'Del Abdu Al-Hakim during the " War On Terror " by Pakistani bounty hunters. Qassim and al-Hakim were transferred to U.S. custody by the Pakistani forces and held in Afghanistan for approximately six months, and were transferred to " Camp Delta ," on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base , where they were detained as an " Enemy Combatant s." President Bush had ruled that the detainees were " Illegal Combatant s" by administrative fiat. Following legal challenges, the Bush administration was forced to provide a mechanism to review the Guantanamo detainees status. COMBATANT STATUS REVIEW TRIBUNAL Qassim chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal . allegations Some of the allegations against Qassim were: :#''In 2001, the detainee traveled from Kyrgyzstan, through Pakistan, then on to Jalalabad, Afghanistan to attend a training camp. :#--missing from the record--- :#''The Detainee was at the camp for three months and spent two months learning the Koran and one month shooting an AK-47 . :#''After the U.S. bombing started, the Detainee and the other Uighurs went to the caves and stayed there until the Northern Alliance came to the camps. :#''An afghani man sent the Detainee with approximately one hundred Arabs and twenty Uighurs to Pakistan, where they were captured. reclassification In late 2005, the CSRT declared them NLECs, but were not released as they feared torture if returned to China. The U.S. refused their admission to the country under the Immigration And Naturalization Act , and they were transferred to Camp Iguana on the naval base. They are currently held pending a country willing to take them or a change in their legal status. Qassim was one of the 38 detainees whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal concluded he had not been an "illegal combatants". Some of those detainees were repatriated, once they were determined NLECs. Others, like, Qassim, and Sami Al Laithi , face possible torture if they are returned. SEEKING ASYLUM In December Judge James Robertson reviewed the detention of Qassim and A'Del Abdu Al-Hakim . Robertson expressed reservations about the nature of their continued detention, but left them in Guantanamo. A February 18 2006 article in the Washington Times reported that Abu Bakker Qassim and A'Del Abdu Al-Hakim had received military training in Afghanistan. It said they were not classified as "illegal combatants" because they intended to go home and employ their training against the Chinese government. Some earlier reports had described them as economic refugees, who were slowly working their way to Turkey. On April 17 2006 the US Supreme Court rejected Qassim's request to hear his appeal for US asylum. His appeal will be heard by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on May 8, 2006. REFERENCES |
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