Abu Bakker Qassim

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Abu Bakker Qassim bigraphy, stories - Chinese guantanamo detainee

Abu Bakker Qassim : biography

May 13, 1969 –

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.

After being classified as "no longer enemy combatant" (NLEC) by the Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) he continued to be held in Cuba, in Camp Iguana until he was released and transferred to Albania., Department of Defense, May 5, 2006 On September 17, 2006 he published an op-ed on The New York Times to ask the American lawmakers and people not to eliminate habeas corpus.

Combatant Status Review

Qassim was among the 60% of prisoners who participated in the tribunal hearings.OARDEC, , September 4, 2007 A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for the tribunal of each detainee. The memo for his hearing lists the following:

Transcript

Qassim chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

On March 3, 2006, in response to a court order from Jed Rakoff the Department of Defense published a ten page summarized transcript from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

Abu Bakr Qasim is a 35-year-old ethnic Uighur and a Chinese citizen, born in 1969, in Ghulja, China. He claims to have fled China in an effort to escape Chinese oppression of the Uigher people. After fleeing China, the detainee traveled to Afghanistan. He was last interviewed in mid-2004. He has no reported incidents of violence in his discipline history. Qasim is suspected as being a probable member of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM). He is suspected of having received training in an ETIM training camp in Afghanistan.

Determined not to have been an Enemy Combatant

The Washington Post reports that Qasim was one of 38 detainees who was determined not to have been an enemy combatant during his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

The Department of Defense refers to these men as No Longer Enemy Combatants.

Reclassification

In March 2005, the CSRT finalized its determination that they were NLECs. Qassim and Hakim were not informed of this determination until May 2005. The United States did not release the men, but did not return them to China because to do so would be a violation of US law prohibiting the deportation of individuals to countries where they would likely be tortured. The U.S. refused to admit them to the United States. Qassim, Hakim and other non-enemy combattants who could not be repatriated were transferred from the general prison population to Camp Iguana in August 2005.

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.

Background

In late 2001, Qassim was captured along with his compatriot A’Del Abdu al-Hakim 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 "enemy combatants." President Bush had ruled that the detainees were "illegal combatants" by administrative fiat. Following legal challenges, the Bush administration was forced to provide a mechanism to review the Guantanamo detainees status.

Press reports

On May 24, 2006 Abu Bakr Qasim told interviewers that he and his compatriots felt isolated in Albania., United Press International, May 24, 2006 Qasim described his disappointment with the United States, who the Uyghurs had been hoping would support the Uyghurs quest for Uyghur autonomy.

In an interview with ABC News in May, 2006, Qasim said that members of the American-Uyghur community had come forward and assured the American government that they would help him and his compatriots adapt to life in America, if they were given asylum in America., ABC News, May 23, 2006