Uighurs now in Albania
on May 6, 2006 at 8:59 am
This is another in a continuing series of reports on the aftermath of Supreme Court decisions and other actions. On April 17, the Court refused to review — in advance of Circuit Court consideration — the appeal of two Chinese nationals, members of a persecuted Muslim minority, who had been captured and were being held at the U.S. Navy prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The case in the Supreme Court was Qassim, et al., v. Bush, et al., docket 05-892.
The Justice Department notified the D.C. Circuit Court on Friday that two ethnic Chinese captives at the U.S. military prison camp in Cuba have now been released to live in Albania. That Court has been scheduled to hear the two individuals’ appeal next Monday. The Department asked the Court to dismiss the case as moot.
The two men are Abu Bakker Qassim and Adel Abdu’ Al-Hakim. U.S. District Judge James Robertson in Washington ruled in December that their continued detention at Guantanamo was unlawful, but that there was no remedy a court could provide. The U.S. military had concluded that they were not “enemy combatants,” but that they could not be returned to their homeland in China because they were likely be tortured.
In its filing in the Ciurcuit Court Friday, the Justice Department said “the stenuous diplomatic efforts” to find an appropriate place for the Uighurs “have now come to fruition.” An attached sworn statement by a State Department official said that the two Chinese nationals “are no longer in the custody and control of the United States.” They were sent to Albania on Friday, the statement said, “for resettlement there as refugees.” The official added that the U.S. government was satisfied that the two would not be returned to China, “and will be treated humanely” The two men were quoted as having said they preferred to be resettled somewhere in Europe. “Albania has a significant population of Muslims, easing [the two individuals’] cultural adjustment,” the statement concluded.
Given their release, the Department told the Circuit Court, “this case is now moot…There is no more live case or controversy and the matter should be dismissed as moot.” The Circuit Court ordered the two individuals’ counsel to file by noon Saturday a response to the motion to dismiss. The case is Qassim, et al., v. Bush (docket 05-5477).
The government’s filing can be found here. (Thanks to Howard Bashman of How Appealing blog for the alert and for the link to this filing.)
