Switzerland: Court Rejects Asylum For Ex-Guantanamo Prisoner
By SwissInfo
A former detainee at the Guantanamo prison has been denied asylum in Switzerland by the Federal Court.
The supreme court announced the ethnic Uighur could not sufficiently justify his request since he has been living in the Pacific island of Palau since his release from the United States detention camp on Cuba.
The man had made an application for asylum in Switzerland in 2008, which was rejected by the Federal Migration Office, and then handed in an appeal.
He argued the health service on Palau could not provide the necessary care to treat his prison trauma.
A member of an ethnic minority in China, the man was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and sent to Guantanamo for five years.
At the request of Washington, Switzerland last year granted asylum to two other Uighurs from Guantanamo.
In a separate development, the Swiss government has asked parliament to extend a ban on the Islamist al-Qaeda terror organisation for a further three years. The ban was imposed after the 9/11 attacks ten years ago.
