Afghan Biographies

Gul, Asadullah Haroon


Name Gul, Asadullah Haroon
Ethnic backgr. Pashtun
Date of birth 1981
Function/Grade Ex Guantanamo Prisoner
History and Biodata

3. Biodata:
Assadullah Haroon Gul aka Haroon al Afghani Harun Gul was born 1980 in Afghanistan. As the family described it, Gul “was working as a honey trader travelling between Peshawar and eastern Afghanistan’s Jalalabad when he was arrested in 2006 in what his family claims was likely a trap to claim a cash reward for fighters.” He was brought to Guantanamo. He won approval for his release on 7 October 2021, according to documents posted by the Guantanamo Periodic Review Boar. The Afghan national has been detained in Guantanamo since 2007, accused of being a member of Hezb-e-Islami (HIA), a militia that fought against the allied invasion of Afghanistan. HIA entered into a peace agreement with the then-US backed Afghan government five years ago. Asadullah Haroon Gul has been held  since June 2007 after he was captured in the eastern city of Jalalabad by Afghan forces and turned over to the US military. Gul was held for 14 years at Guantanamo without charge and denied access to a lawyer for the first nine years of his detention, according to Reprieve, a US legal advocacy group. In 2016, his lawyers filed a petition in federal court in Washington, DC, arguing his detention was unlawful. Gul was never part of the Taliban, or al-Qaeda or any al-Qaeda affiliated group and did not fight against the US. He asserted in court documents that he had been on a business trip to Afghanistan from the refugee camp in Pakistan, where he was living with his family, when he was captured.

Having completed a two-year university program in economics and mastered five different languages, Haroon is more able than most to begin a productive and peaceful life upon release.

Haroon was released on June 24, 2022. He was handed over to Taliban officials in Doha, the capital of Qatar, where the group maintains its political office.(2022-06-24)

Last Modified 2022-06-25
Established 2021-11-01