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Ablikim Turahun
Detained at Guantanamo
Other name(s) Hozaifa Parhat
ISN320
Charge(s)No charge (unlawfully detained)
StatusReleased

Ablikim Turahun (also known as Hozaifa Parhat) is an Uyghur refugee, wrongly imprisoned for seven years in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.[1] His Internment Serial Number was 320. Joint Task Force Guantanamo reported he was born on February 11, 1971, in Ghulja, China.

Turahun is one of the 22 Uighurs held in Guantanamo for many years despite it became clear early on that they were innocent.[2][3][4]

He won his habeas corpus in 2008. Judge Ricardo Urbina declared his detention as unlawful and ordered to set him free in the United States. He was sent to Bermuda in June 2009.

Sabin Willett led off the first chapter of the 2016 book "Obama's Guantánamo: Stories from an Enduring Prison" with an account of how disappoiting it was when Parhat, and fellow Uyghur Salahudin, had the assurance that they would be freed in Virginia, was set aside.[5]

Parhat v. Gates

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Wikisource has original text related to this article:

He is the lead petitioner in Parhat v. Gates, no. 06-1397 (D.C. Cir.), a case brought by seven Uyghurs challenging their "enemy combatant" designation under the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005.[6]

Susan Baker Manning, one of Parhat's attorneys, commented:

If we're going to hold people, possibly for the rest of their lives, it seems eminently fair that we should look at all the evidence to see if they are or are not the people who should be at Guantánamo.[7]

Official status reviews

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Originally the Bush Presidency asserted that captives apprehended in the "war on terror" were not covered by the Geneva Conventions, and could be held indefinitely, without charge, and without an open and transparent review of the justifications for their detention.[8] In 2004 the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, that Guantanamo captives were entitled to being informed of the allegations justifying their detention, and were entitled to try to refute them.

Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants

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Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a 3x5 meter trailer where the captive sat with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor.[9][10]

Following the Supreme Court's ruling the Department of Defense set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants.[8][11]

Scholars at the Brookings Institute, lead by Benjamin Wittes, listed the captives still held in Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain common allegations[12]:

  • Hozaifa Parhat was listed as one of the captives who the Wittes team unable to identify as presently cleared for release or transfer.[12]
  • Hozaifa Parhat was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... [[are associated with both Al Qaeda and

the Taliban]]."[12]

Parhat chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[13] On March 3, 2006, in response to a court order from Judge Jed Rakoff, the Department of Defense published a ten page summarized transcript from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[14]

Federal appeal

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Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Wikisource has original text related to this article:

On June 12, 2008, the United States Supreme Court ruled on Boumediene v. Bush. Its ruling overturned aspects of the Detainee Treatment Act and Military Commissions Act of 2006, allowing Guantanamo captives to access the US justice system for habeas petitions.

On Monday June 23, 2008, it was announced that a three judge Federal court of appeal had overturned the determination of Parhat's Combatant Status Review Tribunal on Friday June 20, 2008.[15][16][17][18][19] Parhat's was the first case to ruled on since the Supreme Court's ruling in Boumediene v. Bush. The panel that reviewed Parhat's CSR Tribunal determination was made up of David B. Sentelle, Merrick B. Garland and Thomas B. Griffith.[20] The court initially published only a one paragraph announcement as its full ruling contained classified material. According to CNN the judges ordered the Department of Defense to either: "release or transfer Parhat, or to expeditiously hold a new [military] tribunal."[18]

According to Sabin Willett, one of his lawyers, it was not possible to tell Parhat of the ruling, because camp authorities were holding him in solitary confinement.[21]

The Los Angeles Times quoted comments on the ruling from David Cole, the author of two books on military law[21]:

Now all of these cases have been revived and this is the first case to move forward. And here is somebody that the military has been holding on to for six years and the federal court now says he shouldn't have been held in the first place. Absent this independent judicial review, he might have been sitting there for another 10 to 15 years. Now he has a chance to find freedom.

On June 19, 2008, Congressional Representatives Bill Delahunt and Dana Rohrabacher published an open letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, calling for the Uyghurs to be moved to more humane conditions within Guantanamo until a country can be found to accept them.[19]

The 39 paqe redacted, unclassified version of the ruling was published on June 30.[22] The ruling pointedly criticized the government's argument that evidence must be reliable because it appears in several documents, stating that “This comes perilously close to suggesting that whatever the government says must be treated as true.” It compared this argument to the Bellman's dictum in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark: "Lewis Carroll notwithstanding, the fact that the government has 'said it thrice' does not make an allegation true."[23]

Steve Chapman a legal columnist at the Chicago Tribune commented on the Bush administration's arguments[24]:

The operating assumption here is that the prisoners are terrorists who were captured while fighting a vicious war against the United States. But can the critics be sure? All they really know about the Guantanamo detainees is that they are Guantanamo detainees. To conclude that they are all bloodthirsty jihadists requires believing that the U.S. government is infallible.

Petition for release into the USA

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On July 23, 2008 Susan Baker Manning filed a motion requesting Parhat be released on parole in the USA, until his habeas petition was completed.[25][26]

On August 5, 2008 the United States Department of Justice opposed Parhat being released in the USA, and to having a judgment made on his habeas petition.[27] The Government's opposition filing was 22 pages long.

The Department of Justice had initially claimed it was necessary to convene a new Combatant Status Review Tribunal, which might consider new evidence supporting a determination that Parhat was indeed an "enemy combatant".[28] On September 2, 2008 the DC Circuit Court denied the Department of Justice plea, ensuring that there would be no re-hearing for Parhat.[29]

The Bush administration still maintains no foreign country is willing to accept Parhat, and is resisting calls to offer him residency or asylum in the USA.[30]

On September 29, 2008 James Oliphant, writing in the Chicago Tribune, quoted Jason Pinney, one of the Uyghur's attorneys.[31] Oliphant characterized the USA decideing to label the Separatist group the Uyghurs were said to have been affiliated with a terrorist group, long after they were captured, in order to curry support from the Chinese for the invasion of Iraq:

  • "The Uighurs are really the poster boys for what happens when you exclude judicial review from something like Guantanamo. You get abuse."
  • "If you connect the dots, it does not look good. The government knew it did something wrong, picked up the wrong people."
  • "They want to blame the international community. They won't accept these poor Uighurs. You've brought them here and you have labeled them terrorists. The worst of the worst. Cold-blooded killers."

Oliphant also quoted Commander Jeffrey Gordon, a Guantanamo spokesman, who defended the record of GI's at Guantanamo[31]:

  • "This assertion is categorically untrue. For years, we have been hard at work with the international community in resettlement options for the Uighurs at Guantanamo, as we do not repatriate detainees to countries which cannot provide credible assurances of humane treatment."

Sent to Bermuda

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Huzaifa Parhat and three other Uyghurs Abdul Helil Mamut, Emam Abdulahat and Jalal Jalaladin were set free in Bermuda on June 11, 2009.[32]

References

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  1. ^ OARDEC (May 15, 2006). "List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
  2. ^ Delahunt, Bill; Willett, Sabin (2009-04-02). "Innocent detainees need a home". The Boston Globe.
  3. ^ http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/17-innocent-uighurs-detained-guant%C3%A1namo-ask-supreme-court-release
  4. ^ China's Uighurs trapped at Guantanamo, Asia Times, November 4, 2004
  5. ^ Jonathan Hafetz (2016). "Obama's Guantánamo: Stories from an Enduring Prison". NYU Press. p. 18-19. ISBN 9781479872404. Retrieved 2017-04-06. The president's bold pledge to close Guantánamo would soon be as flat as the tire. The deal we'd struck would collapse, and not just for Ablikim and Salahidin, the two Uyghur clients whom a senior officer of the department had just committed to bring to the United States.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ^ Erika Tillery (December 18, 2006). "Hufaiza Parhat v. Robert M Gates" (PDF). United States Department of Justice. Retrieved 2008-04-08.
  7. ^ William Glaberson (September 12, 2007). "Officials Cite Danger in Revealing Detainee Data". New York Times. p. A18. Retrieved 2007-09-12. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  8. ^ a b "U.S. military reviews 'enemy combatant' use". USA Today. 2007-10-11. Archived from the original on 2012-08-11. Critics called it an overdue acknowledgment that the so-called Combatant Status Review Tribunals are unfairly geared toward labeling detainees the enemy, even when they pose little danger. Simply redoing the tribunals won't fix the problem, they said, because the system still allows coerced evidence and denies detainees legal representation.
  9. ^ Neil A. Lewis (2004-11-11). "Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court". Guantanamo Bay detention camp: New York Times. Archived from the original on 2009-04-23. Retrieved 2017-02-21.
  10. ^ Mark Huband (2004-12-11). "Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals"". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 2016-03-09. Retrieved 2017-02-21.
  11. ^ "Q&A: What next for Guantanamo prisoners?". BBC News. 2002-01-21. Archived from the original on 23 November 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-24. mirror
  12. ^ a b c d e f g Benjamin Wittes, Zaathira Wyne (2008-12-16). "The Current Detainee Population of Guantánamo: An Empirical Study" (PDF). The Brookings Institute. Retrieved 2010-02-16. mirror
  13. ^ OARDEC (date redacted). "Summarized Statement" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 43–54. Retrieved 2008-04-08. {{cite web}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ "US releases Guantanamo files". Melbourne: The Age. April 4, 2006. Retrieved 2008-03-15.
  15. ^ James Vicini (June 23, 2008). "Appeals court rules for Guantanamo prisoner". Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-06-23. [dead link] mirror
  16. ^ "In first, court rejects military's ruling in Guantanamo case". McClatchy News Service. June 23, 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
  17. ^ "US appeals court rejects classification of Chinese Muslim as an enemy combatant". International Herald Tribune. June 23, 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
  18. ^ a b Bill Mears (June 23, 2008). "Court rules in favor of Chinese Muslim held at Gitmo". CNN. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
  19. ^ a b Pete Yost (2008-06-24). "Court ruling on detainee another setback for gov't". Boston Globe. Retrieved 2008-06-24. mirror
  20. ^ William Glaberson (2008-06-24). "Court Voids Finding on Guantánamo Detainee". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
  21. ^ a b Josh Meyer (2008-06-24). "Court rules for Guantanamo inmate". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008-06-24. It is a tremendous day. It is a very conservative court, but we pressed ahead and we won unanimously," said lawyer P. Sabin Willett. "But Huzaifa Parhat is now in his seventh year of imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay, and he doesn't even know about this ruling because he's sitting in solitary confinement and we can't tell him about it. That's what we do to people in this country -- we put them in solitary confinement even when they are not enemy combatants. mirror
  22. ^ "Full opinion" (pdf). Retrieved 2008-07-04.
  23. ^ Matt Apuzzo (30 June 2008). "Judges cite nonsense poem in Guantanamo case". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2008-07-04.
  24. ^ Steve Chapman (2008-07-06). "Truth and the Gitmo detainees". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2008-07-30. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, after reviewing secret documents submitted by the government, found that there was no real evidence. It said the flimsy case mounted against Parhat "comes perilously close to suggesting that whatever the government says must be treated as true." And it ruled that, based on the information available, he was not an enemy combatant even under the Pentagon's own definition of the term. mirror
  25. ^ "Guantanamo Bay Detainee Litigation: Doc 191 -- Notice of filing" (PDF). United States Department of Justice. 2008-07-23. Retrieved 2008-08-13.
  26. ^ "Huzaifa Parhat's motion for immediate release on parole into the continental United States pending final judgment on his habeas petition" (PDF). United States Department of Justice. 2008-07-29. Retrieved 2008-08-13.
  27. ^ Gregory G. Katsas, John C. O'Quinn (2008-08-05). "Respondent's combined opposition to Parhat's motion for immediate release into the United States and to Parhat's motion for judgment on his habeas petition" (PDF). United States Department of Justice. Retrieved 2008-08-13.
  28. ^ Lyle Denniston (2008-08-19). "Analysis: Escalating the Parhat case". Scotusblog. Retrieved 2008-09-09. [dead link] mirror
  29. ^ Lyle Denniston (2008-09-03). "No rehearing in Parhat". Scotusblog. Retrieved 2008-09-09. [dead link] mirror
  30. ^ "A Home for a Detainee: The U.S. government wants to get Huzaifa Parhat out of Guantanamo Bay. Here's how it could". Washington Post. 2008-08-16. p. A14. Retrieved 2008-09-09.
  31. ^ a b James Oliphant (2008-09-29). "A Chinese Muslim in Gitmo legal limbo: Though eligible for freedom, detainee labeled a foe of China is going nowhere". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2008-09-29. mirror
  32. ^ Andy Worthington (2009-06-11). "Who Are the Four Guantanamo Uighurs Sent to Bermuda?". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2009-06-11.
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