Arkin Mahmud
{{Infobox War on Terror detainee
| name = Arkin Mahmud
| image =
| image_size =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1964|07|01}}
| birth_place = Ghulja, Xinjiang, China
| death_date =
| death_place =
| detained_at = Guantanamo
| id_number = 103
| group =
| alias =
| charge = No charge (unlawfully detained)
| penalty =
| status = Transferred to Switzerland
| occupation =
| spouse =
| parents =
| children = 2
}}
Arkin Mahmud is a Uyghur refugee best known for the seven and a half years he spent in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.
{{Cite web
| url = http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf
| title = List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006
| author = OARDEC
| author-link = OARDEC
| publisher = United States Department of Defense
| date = May 15, 2006
| access-date = 2007-09-29
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070930184034/http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf
| archive-date = 30 September 2007
| url-status = dead
}}
Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts reports Mahmud was born on July 1, 1964, in Ghulja, Xinjiang, China.
Arkin traveled to Afghanistan in order to look for his younger brother Bahtiyar Mahnut.{{Cite news
| url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/27/AR2009092703076_pf.html
| title = 2 Brothers' Grim Tale Of Loyalty And Limbo: To Leave Guantanamo Means Abandoning Family
| newspaper = The Washington Post
| date = 2009-09-27
| author = Del Quentin Wilber
| access-date = 2017-08-21
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121108210013/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/27/AR2009092703076_pf.html
| archive-date = 2012-11-08
| url-status = live
}}
He is one of approximately twenty-two captives from the Uighur ethnic group.{{Cite news
| url = http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/FK04Ad02.html
| title = China's Uighurs trapped at Guantanamo
| work = Asia Times
| author =
| date=November 4, 2004
| access-date = 2008-03-28
| quote =
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516183847/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/FK04Ad02.html
| archive-date = May 16, 2008
| url-status = unfit
}}
By the summer of 2009, Arkin's mental health had deteriorated so profoundly he wasn't offered sanctuary in Palau. For some time in 2005, during his stay in Guantanamo, he was held in solitary confinement.
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.
Until his transfer to Switzerland on March 23, 2010, Arkin Mahmud had been held at Guantanamo for more than seven and a half years despite it became clear early on that he like the other Uyghurs in Guantanamo was innocent.{{cite news | url=http://projects.nytimes.com/guantanamo/detainees/103-arkin-mahmud | work=The New York Times | title=Arkin Mahmud - The Guantánamo Docket | access-date=2009-12-02 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091007135231/http://projects.nytimes.com/guantanamo/detainees/103-arkin-mahmud | archive-date=2009-10-07 | url-status=live }}
Writ of habeas corpus
A writ of habeas corpus, Arkina Amahmud v. George W. Bush, was submitted on Arkina Amahmud's behalf.
{{Cite web
| url = http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/publicly_filed_CSRT_records_698-814.pdf#31
| title = Arkina Amahmud v. George W. Bush
| date = 20 September 2005
| pages = 31–52
| publisher = United States Department of Defense
| access-date = 2007-12-16
| url-status = dead
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071214103017/http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/publicly_filed_CSRT_records_698-814.pdf#31
| archive-date = 14 December 2007
}}{{Cite web |last=Totenberg |first=Nina |date=October 20, 2009 |title=Supreme Court To Hear New Guantanamo Case |url=https://www.npr.org/2009/10/20/113963490/supreme-court-to-hear-new-guantanamo-case |website=NPR}}{{Cite book |last=Andy Worthington |url=https://archive.org/stream/TheGuantanamoFiles/the-guantanamo-files_djvu.txt |title=The Guantanamo Files}}
Mental health
In July 2009, the Pacific Ocean country of Palau offered sanctuary to all the remaining Uyghur captives in Guantanamo, except Arkin.
Arkin's younger brother Bahtiyar declined the invitation of sanctuary in Palau in order to stay with Arkin.
Due to reports from camp guards that Arkin had broken the camp's rules, from 2005 he was held in isolation from other captives.
Arkin told Elizabeth Gibson, his habeas counsel, "I know I'll die in here. In China, at least I would have a trial and sentence."
Granted asylum in Switzerland
Switzerland granted political asylum to Arkin Mahmud and Bahtiyar Mahnut on February 4, 2010.
{{cite news
| url = http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/02/04/swiss-take-two-guantanamo-uighurs-save-obama-from-having-to-do-the-right-thing/
| title = Swiss Take Two Guantánamo Uighurs, Save Obama from Having to Do the Right Thing
| author = Andy Worthington
| author-link = Andy Worthington
| date = 2010-02-04
| access-date = 2010-02-04
| quote = Not mentioned publicly was the fact that, until Jura accepted the men’s asylum claims, one of them, Arkin Mahmud, appeared to stuck at Guantánamo, his only way out being to hope that the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the Uighurs’ case last year, would overturn last February’s appeals court ruling, and allow cleared prisoners who cannot be repatriated into the United States.
| url-status = dead
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101013104625/http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/02/04/swiss-take-two-guantanamo-uighurs-save-obama-from-having-to-do-the-right-thing/
| archive-date = 2010-10-13
}}
{{cite news
| url = http://worldradio.ch/wrs/news/wrsnews/ex-guantanamo-detainees-thank-jura.shtml?21159
| title = Ex-Guantanamo detainees thank Jura
| publisher = World Radio Switzerland
| date = 2010-10-04
| access-date = 2010-10-05
| quote = They say that six months after their arrival in Switzerland, they are gradually acclimating to their new lives, but that the trauma of their experiences is still present.
| url-status = dead
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110910014840/http://worldradio.ch/wrs/news/wrsnews/ex-guantanamo-detainees-thank-jura.shtml?21159
| archive-date = 2011-09-10
}}
{{cite news
| url = http://worldradio.ch/wrs/news/switzerland/uighur-brothers-in-jura-six-months-later.shtml?21161
| title = Uighur brothers in jura six months later
| publisher = World Radio Switzerland
| date = 2010-10-04
| access-date = 2010-10-05
| quote = Switzerland granted Arkin and Bahtiyar Mahmud asylum on humanitarian grounds. The brothers now live in canton Jura and, a short while ago, met the media for the first time.
| url-status = dead
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101231131421/http://worldradio.ch/wrs/news/switzerland/uighur-brothers-in-jura-six-months-later.shtml?21161
| archive-date = 2010-12-31
}}
{{cite news
| url = http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/Uighurs_adjusting_to_new_life_in_Switzerland.html?cid=28468058
| title = Uighurs adjusting to new life in Switzerland
| publisher = SwissInfo
| author =
| date = 2010-10-04
| page =
| access-date = 2010-10-05
| quote = The two Uighurs arrived in canton Jura on March 23 with one living in the town of Delémont and the other in Courroux. They were admitted to Switzerland on humanitarian grounds.
| url-status = dead
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120930212137/http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/Uighurs_adjusting_to_new_life_in_Switzerland.html?cid=28468058
| archive-date = 2012-09-30
}}
{{cite news
| url = http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/10/07/guantanamo-uighur-brothers-happy-in-switzerland-but-struggling-to-adapt-to-new-life/
| title = Guantánamo Uighur Brothers "Happy" in Switzerland, But Struggling to Adapt to New Life
| publisher =
| author = Andy Worthington
| author-link = Andy Worthington
| date = 2010-07-10
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101011122049/http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/10/07/guantanamo-uighur-brothers-happy-in-switzerland-but-struggling-to-adapt-to-new-life
| archive-date = 2010-10-11
| access-date = 30 March 2014
| url-status = live
| quote =
}}
Swiss authorities helped them settle in Canton of Jura. Historian Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files commented that Switzerland's grant of Asylum preserved the Obama Presidency from political embarrassment, because all the Uyghurs had been offered a new home, except for Arkin Mahmud, and that the Swiss offer of asylum would complicate the habeas petitions of the four remaining Uyghur captives who had declined to agree to accept refugee status in Palau.
References
{{Reflist|2}}
External links
- [http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2008/10/09/from-guantanamo-to-the-united-states-the-story-of-the-wrongly-imprisoned-uighurs/ From Guantánamo to the United States: The Story of the Wrongly Imprisoned Uighurs] Andy Worthington October 9, 2008
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20100623230325/http://ccrjustice.org/files/2008-10-09%20Kiyemba%20corrected%20release%20order%20%282008-10-09%29.pdf Judge Ricardo Urbina’s unclassified opinion (redacted version)]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20100620091607/http://ccrjustice.org/files/2008-10-07%20Kiyemba%20-%20Uighur%20hearing%20transcript.pdf MOTIONS/STATUS HEARING - UIGHURS CASES BEFORE THE HONORABLE RICARDO M. URBINA]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110708221655/http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?ID=37082 Taking On Guantánamo] Connecticut Law Tribune, May 10, 2010
- Human Rights First; [http://www.humanrightsfirst.info/pdf/Habeas-Works-final-web.pdf Habeas Works: Federal Courts’ Proven Capacity to Handle Guantánamo Cases (2010)]{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
{{ListUyghurCaptives}}
{{WoTPrisoners}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahmud, Arkin}}
Category:Chinese extrajudicial prisoners of the United States