Transcript

Qassim chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

The Combatant Status Review Tribunals were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as "enemy combatants". The CSRTs were established July 7, 2004 by order of U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense...

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On March 3, 2006, in response to a court order

Court order

A court order is an official proclamation by a judge that defines the legal relationships between the parties to a hearing, a trial, an appeal or other court proceedings. Such ruling requires or authorizes the carrying out of certain steps by one or more parties to a case...

 from Jed Rakoff the Department of Defense

United States Department of Defense

The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...

 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

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

The Combatant Status Review Tribunals were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as "enemy combatants". The CSRTs were established July 7, 2004 by order of U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense...

 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 March 2005, attorneys for Qassim challenged his continued detention by filing a Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus in federal district court in Washington DC in the case of Qassim v. Bush

Qassim v. Bush

Abu Bakker Qassim, et al. v. George W. Bush, et al. , is a case in which two Muslim Uyghurs challenged their detention at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.-Facts:...

. In December Judge James Robertson

James Robertson (judge)

James Robertson is a United States federal judge serving on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Robertson graduated from Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio, and received a B.A. from Princeton University in 1959. He served in the United States...

 reviewed the detention of Qassim and A'Del Abdu al-Hakim.
Robertson declared that their "indefinite imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay is unlawful," but also ruled on separation of powers grounds that he did not have the power to order their release into the United States. Qassim and Hakim immediately appealed.

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

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 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.
His appeal was scheduled to be heard by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on May 8, 2006.

Press reports

On May 24, 2006 Abu Bakr Qasim told interviewers that he and his compatriots felt isolated in Albania. 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

ABC News

ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...

 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.

To the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 he said in January 2007 that "Guantanamo was a five-year nightmare, We're trying to forget it." "
On June 15, 2008 the McClatchy News Service published articles based on interviews with 66 former Guantanamo captives. McClatchy reporters interviewed Abu Baqr Qassim.
According to the McClatchy reporters his translators encouraged him to hope, while the American guards treated him with brutality:
According to the McClatchy report Sabin Willet told them that China:
Abu Baqr Qassim described realizing he had to learn Arabic if he was ever to get out of Guantanamo.
And when he was transferred to lighter security in a dormitory shared with Arabic speakers and other Uyghurs they set about taking informal Arabic lessons. Abu Baqr Qassim told reporters the Uyghurs request for paper, to make notes, was denied—although the Guantanamo policy states that captives were to be issued a certain number of pages per month, for sending mail. He was punished by being sent to solitary confinement when guards found he had used napkins to take notes. When he got an attorney, and that attorney brought him books, so he could learn English, guards confiscated the books.

Now that he is in Albania, and his prospects of ever getting a passport or visa seem slim, he has started learning Albanian—but without enthusiasm.

On September 28, 2009 the Washington Post quoted Abu Bakker's reaction to the "difficult and sad" decision of fellow Uyghur captive Bahtiyar Mahnut

Bahtiyar Mahnut

-Transcript:Mahnut participated in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.His Tribunal convened on 23 October 2004 and 27 October 2004.On March 3, 2006, in response to a court order from Jed Rakoff the Department of Defense published an eighteen page summarized transcript from his Combatant Status...

 to remain in Guantanamo, rather than accept an asylum

Right of asylum

Right of asylum is an ancient juridical notion, under which a person persecuted for political opinions or religious beliefs in his or her own country may be protected by another sovereign authority, a foreign country, or church sanctuaries...

 offer from the government of Palau

Palau

Palau , officially the Republic of Palau , is an island nation in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Philippines and south of Tokyo. In 1978, after three decades as being part of the United Nations trusteeship, Palau chose independence instead of becoming part of the Federated States of Micronesia, a...

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His older brother Arkin Mahnut had traveled to Afghanistan because their family was worried about Bathiyar. Of the Uyghurs remaining in Guantanamo Arkin was the only one not offered asylum in Palau, because he became mentally ill in Guantanamo, and there were no facilities in Palau to treat his mental illness.
Abu Bakker said:

External links

• Three Uighurs Talk About Chinese Interrogation At Guantánamo Andy Worthington
• A Letter To Barack Obama From A Guantánamo Uighur Andy Worthington