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Closing Guantanamo Bay...

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Eddie Mair | 15:30 UK time, Monday, 12 January 2009

...not that easy, writes Michael Buchanan:

"On tonight's programme, the extraordinary story of Adel Hakimjan. He's a Chinese Uighir man who has spent much of the past decade travelling the world against his wishes.

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Having fled persecution in China - accused by the authorities of plotting against Chinese rule of his homeland - he was arrested in Pakistan in late 2001 by bounty hunters who handed him to the Americans, claiming he was a foreign terrorist. Having spent 6 months in a detention facility in Afghanistan, he was flown to Guantanamo Bay where he spent almost 4 years. There he was cleared of being a threat to the US - or indeed much of a threat to anyone - but had to remain in custody while a safe haven was found for him. Adel, like all the 22 Uighirs detained at Guantanamo Bay, feared persecution if they returned to China. Eventually Albania said they'd take him but, frightened that the Chinese would "pay someone to harm us without being directly involved itself," he managed to get to Sweden where his sister, Kauser, lives:

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The Swedes have so far refused him permission to stay there but he's appealing and his lawyer is hopeful. But his plight shows that closing Guantanamo Bay will not be as easy as Barack Obama - and indeed most of the world - would like it to be. "

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