Guantánamo holds family at bay

Together with his friend Selcuk Bilgin, he developed a liking for dogs and lifting weights at the local gym.

"It helped his self-confidence," says Fuat Avsar, the gym owner who became a sort of big brother to Kurnaz. "Then, a few months before the World Trade Center attacks, things changed."

The 19-year-old stopped attending the family mosque, opting instead for a Moroccan mosque that was not on the radar screen of local law enforcement until Kurnaz's capture. Since then, the Abu Bakr Mosque has been watched by agents from Germany's Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Prosecutors launched an investigation of an Imam at the mosque following Kurnaz's capture, suspecting him of pushing young Muslims into attending militant Koranic schools in Pakistan. The investigation was eventually called off, but the mosque remains under observation.

A German investigator interviewed in 2002 about Kurnaz said it was at Abu Bakr that Kurnaz found the "true Islam" he was looking for. He grew a beard and began selling videotapes at his gym, documenting Serb atrocities against Bosnian Muslim women and children during the Bosnian War.

"This happened in less than a few weeks," says Mr. Avsar, who told Kurnaz he wasn't allowed in the gym anymore. "Then, suddenly, he was gone."

On Oct. 3, 2001, Rabiye Kurnaz woke up to find her son's bed empty. Already wary of the changes in her son, she remembered him saying he wanted to travel to Pakistan to "see and live the Koran," and began to worry. A call to Bilgin's wife confirmed her fears: Bilgin and Kurnaz were on their way to Karachi.

Border guards stopped Bilgin at Frankfurt airport because of a warrant for an unpaid fine. Kurnaz went on without him.

Rabiye Kurnaz received a phone call from her son in November, saying he was planning on extending his trip one month. The next correspondence was from a prison camp in Afghanistan, where he was being held by US forces.

German investigators familiar with the case said Kurnaz was going from madrassah to madrassah in Pakistan before being arrested and turned over to the Americans somewhere near the Karachi airport in late November. They doubt, however, that he ever made it to Afghanistan, much less get involved in any fighting, according to the investigator, who did not want to be named.

Since the two postcards, Rabiye Kurnaz has received nothing more from her son. German Foreign Minister Joshka Fischer sent an apologetic note two years ago that his hands were tied, because Kurnaz is a citizen of Turkey. The Foreign Ministry in Ankara told Rabiye Kurnaz in February that they would begin lobbying on his behalf, two years after she had begun bombarding them with e-mails and letters.

After the US government's release of the British prisoners two weeks ago, Rabiye half-hoped Murat would be next. She began cleaning up his room, now filled with bicycles and storage boxes, and packed a suitcase in case she needed to travel. Kurnaz wasn't released. His younger brother has since eaten the chocolates she had bought for him. Rabiye Kurnaz remains resolute.

"I'm definitely hopeful that he'll come home," says Kurnaz. "I just don't know when, and in what state."

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