Akhdar Qasem Basit

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Akhdar Qasem Basit is a citizen of China, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.[1] Basit's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 276. The Department of Defense report Basit was born on November 14, 1973, in Ghulja, China.

Basit is one of approximately two dozen detainees from the Uighur ethnic group.[2]

Main article: Uighur detainees in Guantanamo

Contents

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a small trailer, the same width, but shorter, than a mobile home. The Tribunal's President sat in the big chair. The detainee sat with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor in the white, plastic garden chair. A one way mirror behind the Tribunal President allowed observers to observe clandestinely. In theory the open sessions of the Tribunals were open to the press. Three chairs were reserved for them. In practice the Tribunal only intermittently told the press that Tribunals were being held. And when they did they kept the detainee's identities secret. In practice almost all Tribunals went unobserved.
Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a small trailer, the same width, but shorter, than a mobile home. The Tribunal's President sat in the big chair. The detainee sat with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor in the white, plastic garden chair. A one way mirror behind the Tribunal President allowed observers to observe clandestinely. In theory the open sessions of the Tribunals were open to the press. Three chairs were reserved for them. In practice the Tribunal only intermittently told the press that Tribunals were being held. And when they did they kept the detainee's identities secret. In practice almost all Tribunals went unobserved.

Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct a competent tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status.

Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants -- rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant.

Basit chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[3]

[edit] allegations

The allegations against Basit were:[3]

a. The detainee is associated with the Al Qaida and the Taliban:
  1. The detainee, in August 2001, departed China for Kyrgyzstan, to Islamabad, Pakistan, continued to Jalalabad, Afghanistan and to [[Tora Bora[[, Afghanistan.
  2. The detainee was at the Uighur training camp in Tora Bora, Afghanistan.
  3. The detainee received training on the AK-47 assault rifle at Uigher training camp in Tora Bora, Afghanistan.
  4. The detainee received training on the PR machine run and military tactics at a Uigher training camp.
  5. The training camp was provided to the Uighers by the Taliban.
  6. The ETIM operated facilities in the Tora Bora region Afghanistan in which Uigher expatriates underwent small arms training. These camps were funded by Bin Laden and the Taliban.
b. The detainee participated in military operations against the United States and its coalition partners.
  1. The detainee fled, along with others, when the United States forces bombed their camp.
  2. The detainee was captured in Pakistan, along with other Uigher fighters.

[edit] Determined not to have been an Enemy Combatant

The Washington Post reports that Basit was one of 38 detainees who was determined not to have been an enemy combatant during his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[4] They report that Basit has been released. The Department of Defense refers to these men as No Longer Enemy Combatants.

[edit] Asylum in Albania

On May 5, 2006 the Department of Defense announced that they had transferred five Uighurs who had been determined not to have been enemy combatants, to Albania.[5][6] Seventeen other Uighurs continue to be held at Guantanamo, because their CSRTs determined they were enemy combatants.

The five men had a lawsuit scheduled for argument on May 8, 2006 before the US District Court where their lawyers would argue for their release.[7]

The Department of Justice filed an "Emergency Motion to Dismiss as Moot" on May 5, 2006.[8][9] Barbara Olshansky, one of the Uighur's lawyers, characterized the sudden transfer as an attempt to: "...avoid having to answer in court for keeping innocent men in jail,[10]"

Main article: Uighur detainees in Guantanamo

[edit] References

  1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
  2. ^ China's Uighurs trapped at Guantanamo, Asia Times, November 4, 2004
  3. ^ a b Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Akhdar Qasem Basit'sCombatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 1-6
  4. ^ Guantanamo Bay Detainees Classifed as "No Longer Enemy Combatants", Washington Post
  5. ^ detainee release announced, Department of Defense, May 5, 2006
  6. ^ Albania accepts Chinese Guantanamo detainees, Washington Post, May 5, 2006
  7. ^ Albania Takes 5 Ethnic Chinese From Gitmo, Houston Chronicle, May 5, 2006
  8. ^ Emergency Motion to Dismiss as Moot, Department of Justice, May 5, 2006
  9. ^ Making Justice Moot, Alternet, May 6, 2006
  10. ^ Albania takes Guantanamo Uighurs, BBC, May 6, 2006
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