Kandahar Five

Kandahar Five

Company type	Detention group
Industry	Detention / incarceration
Headquarters	Kandahar , Afghanistan

The term Kandahar Five designates a group of five individuals who endured prolonged incarceration in a Taliban facility located in Kandahar, Afghanistan, before being transferred to extrajudicial confinement at the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps in Cuba.

Following the liberation of the prison by Northern Alliance forces, which resulted in the release of approximately 1,500 detainees, several members of this group were briefly interviewed while residing in a refugee camp with limited freedom. The Kandahar Five recounted that they had been handed over or sold to American forces in exchange for bounty payments.

In June 2007, Commander Jeffrey Gordon, representing the Department of Defense, justified the ongoing detention of some individuals by highlighting the multiple evaluations and classifications conducted since their initial capture.

Abd Al Rahim Abdul Rassak Janko (Syrian Kurd)	Detained by Taliban authorities on allegations of espionage. His legal counsel, Steve Sady from Portland, Oregon, asserts that Janko "offered critical testimony regarding Taliban human rights violations to U.S. investigators and merited protective measures." He is diagnosed with PTSD and currently receives medical treatment.
Jamal Udeen Al-Harith (UK)	States that he inadvertently entered Afghanistan while traveling from Pakistan to Iran and was apprehended by the Taliban under suspicion of being an American intelligence agent due to his British citizenship. He was moved directly from Taliban custody to U.S. detention facilities and was eventually repatriated and freed in March 2004.
Sadik Ahmad Turkistani	Held captive by the Taliban on accusations of participating in a conspiracy targeting al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. He denies any involvement but maintains opposition to both the Taliban and al-Qaeda. He cooperated with U.S. officials and was approved for release but continued to be detained.
Airat Vakhitov (Russia)	Escaped Russia in 1999 to evade persecution; coerced by members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan into traveling to Afghanistan, where the Taliban imprisoned him suspecting him as a Russian intelligence operative. Returned to Russia in February 2004; currently works as an independent writer in Tatarstan and experiences occasional detentions.
Abdul Hakim Bukhary	Imprisoned by the Taliban due to his support for Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was assassinated in 2001.