Adel Abdulhehim

Adel Abdulhehim
Other names	A'Del Abdu al-Hakim

The caption to this bounty poster, distributed in Afghanistan, states: “You can receive millions of dollars for helping the Anti-Taliban Force catch Al-Qaida and Taliban murderers. This enough money to take care of your family, your village, your tribe for the rest of your life. Pay for livestock and doctors and school books and housing for all your people."

Adel Abdulhehim or Adel Abdul Hakim is a citizen of the People's Republic of China from the Uighur ethnic group who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States-controlled Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 293. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts report he was born on October 10, 1974, in Ghulja, Xinjiang.

Abdulhehim was captured in late 2001, and detained as a suspected terrorist in Camp Delta where he was assigned detainee ID number 293. He is one of the 38 detainees whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal concluded he had not been an "illegal combatant" after all.

Abdulhehim is one of approximately two dozen detainees from the Uighur ethnic group.

According to an article distributed by the Associated Press, Abdulhehim, his compatriot Abu Baker Qassim, and eight others were moved from imprisonment at the main compound of Camp Delta to a less harsh imprisonment at Camp Iguana.

A February 18, 2006 article in the Washington Times claimed that Abu Bakker Qassim and A'Del Abdu al-Hakim had received military training in Afghanistan. It reported they were not classified as "illegal combatants" because they intended to go home and employ their training against the Chinese government, and were released. Some earlier reports had described them as economic refugees who were slowly working their way to Turkey.

Bounty

Hakim and Abu Bakker Qassim report they were sold to US forces by bounty hunters.

Adel Abdulhehim is a 30-year-old Chinese citizen. who is an ethnic Uighur from the Ghulja province of China. He was last interviewed in the end of 2002. He had a disciplinary action on 3 March 2003 for participating in a block riot. Abdulhehim has had no discipline during this calendar year. He 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.

The information paper also identified him as "Muhammad Qadir".

Combatant Status Review

Main article: Combatant Status Review Tribunal

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for his tribunal. The memo listed the following allegations: The memo listed the following allegations against him:

a. The detainee is associated with an al Qaida and the Taliban:

1. In June 2001, the detainee traveled from Kyrgyzstan to Jalalabad, Afghanistan via Pakistan, then on to the Eastern Turkistan Uighur Party (ETUP) training camp at Tora Bora, Afghanistan.
2. The detainee received training on the AK-47 assault rifle at a Uighur training camp.
3. The training camp was provided to the Uighurs by the Taliban.
4. The ETIM operated facilities in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan in which Uighur 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, along with others, fled their camp when the United States bombing campaign began.
2. The detainee was captured in Pakistan along with other Uighur fighters.

Transcript

Abdulhehim 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.

Seeking asylum

In December 2005 Judge James Robertson reviewed the detention of Abu Bakker 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 government. Some earlier reports had described them as economic refugees, who were slowly working their way to Turkey.

Press reports

To the BBC Abdul Hakim said in January 2007 that "Albanian people are very welcoming and there are many Muslim brothers here".

However, in Albania Hakim was separated from his wife and their three children, as Albania did not permit family-reunification. In November 2007 he was granted a 4-day visa to Sweden, to lecture about human rights in Stockholm. Since his sister lived in Sweden, he applied for asylum there. However, in June 2008 the immigration authorities in Sweden announced that Hakim had been denied political asylum.

On June 15, 2008 the McClatchy News Service published articles based on interviews with 66 former Guantanamo captives. McClatchy reporters interviewed Adel Abdulhehim. The McClatchy interview records his account of his "military training" in the Uyghur construction camp:

“They had some guns, some AK-47s, and asked us if we wanted to learn to use them. Really, I was curious. I'd never been allowed to handle one before. We went out once, for an hour or so. I think I shot three or four bullets, at rocks. That was it.”

External links

• Judge Asks Status of Gitmo Detainees, South Georgia Online, August 25, 2005
• Judge Weighs Order to Release Two at Gitmo, Forbes, December 13, 2005
• Guantánamo’s Uyghurs: stranded in Albania Andy Worthington
• WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Former Guantánamo detainee seeks asylum in Sweden Andy Worthington
• Bad News And Good News For The Guantánamo Uighurs Andy Worthington

Template:ListUyghurDetaineesTemplate:Exonerated Guantanamo detainees