FORMER IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO AZERBAIJAN REQUESTS

S E C R E T SANAA 001546 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/30/2013 TAGS: PREL ASEC IZ AJ YM SUBJECT: FORMER IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO AZERBAIJAN REQUESTS ASYLUM REF: A. SANAA 1414 ¶B. STATE 163627 ¶C. SANAA 1351 ¶D. SANAA 1260 ¶E. SANAA 1259 ¶F. SANAA 1139 ¶G. SANAA 898 ¶H. STATE 102827 Classified By: Ambassador Edmund J. Hull, for Reasons 1.5 (b,c,d) ¶1. (S/NF) On 6/21 Abdul Hakim al-Iryani, Advisor to Foreign Minister Qirbi, asked for USG assistance in vetting the asylum request of former Iraqi Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Ghalib Abdu Husayn al-Tamimi, his wife, and their six children. PolOff delivered USG response provided by ORCA (para 2) on June 25. Iryani was pleased by the timeliness of the reply, but felt the response lacked the decisiveness ROYG requires. He noted that this request is currently being handled by the Yemeni Ambassador to Turkey. In response, PolOff re-affirmed the firm USG position that al-Tamimi should not be granted asylum. ¶2. (S/NF rel Yemen) Begin text: Ghalib Abdu Husayn al-Tamimi has served as Iraqi Ambassador to Azerbaijan in Baku since approximately 1998. We also have information that subject may also be an Iraqi Intelligence Service Officer who worked as a torturer in the General Security Directorate. This information, however, has not been confirmed. Subject attended university in Moscow and subsequently worked in Russia for several years as First Secretary in Iraq's Moscow embassy from 1989-1993. He was SIPDIS part of an Iraqi commercial delegation that arrived in Moscow to confer with a Russian team of negotiators in October 1994 and also worked in the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs Third Political Department. He is in his late 40s or early 50s, married, and has six children. The 2002 Azerbaijani Diplomatic List showed Tamimi's wife as Afrah Tamimi. He is Shi'a and speaks Russian fluently. End text. HULL