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Guantánamo: Lives Torn Apart (Sadik Ahmad Turkistani)

Amnesty International
Document Index: AMR 51/007/2006
October 7, 2006

Saddiq Ahmed Turkistani also remains held at Guantánamo even though he is no longer considered to be an ‘enemy combatant’. Saddiq Turkistani is an ethnic Uighur who was born in Saudi Arabia – his family are thought to have fled to Saudi Arabia to escape the violent repression of the Uighurs by Chinese authorities. He says that he was exiled and stripped of his Saudi Arabian citizenship in 1997 after being arrested on drug possession allegations. According to him Saudi Arabian authorities then sent him to Afghanistan where he and a friend were accused of attempting to kill Osama bin Laden and held by the Taliban for four years before being released by invading US forces. After meeting with United Nations officials and participating in a press conference he was, however, then taken to the US military base in Kandahar and later transported to Guantánamo where he was held in solitary confinement for one and a half years. He has also reportedly described being repeatedly abused by guards, and subjected to psychological abuse by medical staff.

In January 2005 Saddiq Ahmed Turkistani was told by US officials that he was ‘no longer an "enemy combatant"’. However, having lost his Saudi Arabian citizenship he is unable to return to the country of his birth and it is believed that no other country has agreed to accept his resettlement […]

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