Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak al-Janko
Of the hundreds of detainees imprisoned by the United States on suspicions of being terrorists, it might be difficult to find a case more unfair than that of Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak al-Janko. The Syrian-Kurd was in Afghanistan in 2000 and wound up being tortured by al-Qaeda, which suspected Janko of being an American spy. He then spent 18 months in a Taliban prison, until the United States invaded the country in 2001. But instead of being freed by U.S. forces, Janko was shipped to Guantánamo Bay because the government insisted he was a member of al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
On Monday, a federal judge ordered Janko to be released from Guantánamo after spending the last seven years imprisoned there. U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon said the government’s legal rationale for holding Janko “defies common sense.” His attorney, Stephen R. Sady, called Janko’s case a “tragedy,” adding, “The guy was horribly tortured and then tries to report his human rights violation to the U.S. forces …. Instead, he gets mistaken for being a terrorist. . . . This is a nightmare for an innocent man being accused of all of these things.”
Leon also ordered the government to find a new home for Janko, who cannot return to his native Syria.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Judge Orders Guantanamo Detainee's Release (by Del Quentin Wilber, Washington Post)
Judge Orders Guantanamo Detainee Freed (by Devlin Barrett, Associated Press)
The Guantanamo Docket: Abd al Rahim Abdul Rassak Janko (New York Times)
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