Six Uighur Guantanamo detainees transferred to Palau News
Six Uighur Guantanamo detainees transferred to Palau

[JURIST] Six Chinese Uighur Guantanamo Bay detainees [JURIST news archive] were transferred [press release] to the Republic of Palau [CIA backgrounder] Saturday, according to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website]. The six men, Ahmad Tourson, Abdul Ghappar Abdul Rahman, Edham Mamet, Anwar Hassan, Dawut Abdurehim and Adel Noori, were relocated to a home in the middle of Koror, the commercial center of the island nation, where they will be among a Muslim population of about 500. The DOJ said the men had been cleared for release under the Bush administration, as they were no longer considered unlawful enemy combatants [10 USC 948a text; JURIST news archive]. The men had also been subject to review by the Joint Task Force [official website] for Guantanamo detainees, and were approved for release. With the transfer, seven Uighurs remain in custody at Guantanamo.

Earlier this month, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal [JURIST report] of the remaining Uighur detainees. In June, Palau President Johnson Toribiong said that his country was willing to accept [JURIST report] all 17 of the Uighur detainees held at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archives]. Following that statement, four of the Uighurs were transferred to Bermuda [JURIST report]. The Chinese government has repeatedly demanded the repatriation of the Uighurs, maintaining that they are members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) [CFR backgrounder], a militant group that calls for separation from China and has been a US-designated terrorist group since 2002. The US has previously rejected China's calls to repatriate [JURIST report] the Uighurs, citing fear of torture upon their return.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.