Sweden denies asylum to former Guantanamo detainee

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, June 22 – Last week, Sweden denied asylum to a Chinese Muslim released from Guantanamo Bay after the U.S. acknowledged he was not a terrorist. Albania was the only country to accept him and a group of other Uighurs.
In its ruling, the Swedish Migration Board acknowledged that Al-Hakim could not be sent back to China. But the board said he had no reason to seek refuge from Albania. He would appeal that verdict. Al-Hakim applied for asylum in Sweden in November, when he visited to attend a human rights conference in Stockholm.
Adel Abdu Al-Hakim, who belongs to a minority group of Turkic-speaking Chinese Muslims called Uighurs, fled China in 1999 to avoid persecution. He ended up in Pakistan, but was swept up in the U.S. dragnet for terrorists after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and was taken to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
After he was released in 2006, Al-Hakim went to Albania נthe only country that would accept him.