FORMER GUANTANAMO DETAINEES APPROACH EMBASSY, REQUEST

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DUSHANBE 000996 NOFORN SIPDIS STATE DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/CEN E.O. 12958: DECL: 8/24/2019 TAGS: PHUM PINR PTER KJUS KDRG TI SUBJECT: FORMER GUANTANAMO DETAINEES APPROACH EMBASSY, REQUEST MEDICAL RECORDS AND COMPENSATION CLASSIFIED BY: Matt Purl, A/DCM, POL, DOS. REASON: 1.4 (c),(d) ¶1. (C/NF) On August 12 Shafi Rakhimovich Salikhov (as spelled in his Tajik passport) walked into the embassy, and asked to speak with an embassy officer. Local guards briefly interviewed him, then referred him to the Assistant Regional Security Officer. Salikhov explained to the A/RSO that he had received medical treatment while held at Guantanamo, and that he needed documentation of his detention and his medical records there in order to advance bureaucratic proceedings related to his health and pension in Tajikistan. He also expressed interest in obtaining compensation from the USG for harm to his health stemming from mistreatment he claimed to have suffered at the hands of guards at Guantanamo. A/RSO advised Salikhov that he would pass the request to the proper authorities, and Salikhov then left the embassy. ¶3. (C/NF) We believe this is the same person as Maroof Saleemovich Salehove (partial ISN 208),held at Guantanamo from 2003 to 2005, then returned to Tajikistan. His Tajik passport indicates his date of birth as 3 March, 1978. ¶4. (C/NF) Salikhov returned to the embassy on August 21 to check on the status of his request. Emboff told him the request was still pending. Emboff asked Salikhov what harm he had suffered while detained at Guantanamo Bay. Salikhov became evasive, and said he did not want to describe the abuse he allegedly faced. When pressed for specifics, he said guards had knocked him down with a blow to the head, then several had lain on top of him. He said this had happened "too many times to recall" during his detention at Guantanamo. He added that when he was released from Guantanamo some guards apologized to him for the ill treatment. Salikhov said he could not work because of his injuries and associated mental problems; he was living with his parents in Kurgan Teppe. ¶5. (C/NF) With Salikhov on the August 21 visit was Mehrabon Faizuloevich Odinaev, DOB 11 October, 1962 as stated in his Tajik passport. Odinaev said he also had been held at Guantanamo, from 2002 to 2007, and asked for compensation from the USG for his time there and for damage to his health which he had suffered while at Guantanamo Bay. He said he suffered from nervous and heart problems, and could not stand for long periods of time [note: he walked a few hundred meters to the front of the embassy, and away from the embassy following the meeting]. Contradicting his assertion that his poor health prevented him from working, he added that we wished to go to Russia to find work, but could not enter Russia because of his association with Guantanamo. Odinaev said he had been taken prisoner in Kandahar in January 2002, while traveling back to Tajikistan from a visit to his son who was studying in Pakistan, and was "sold by Dostum to the Americans." He said he was now living with his wife and four children in Dushanbe, and he insisted he never had any connection to terrorism or insurgency. His main interest seemed to be in obtaining compensation for his lost time in Guantanamo. ¶6. (C/NF) Odinaev appears to be the same as Mehrubon Odinaev (ISN 077),departed Guantanamo on 31 March 2004. Post does not know why he said he was held at Guantanamo until 2007, and this may simply have been a misunderstanding in translation from Tajik to English. ¶7. (C/NF) Emboff asked both Salikhov and Odinaev whether Tajik security personnel had abused them in any way since their return to Tajikistan. Both said that upon return to Tajikistan they were held in temporary investigative detention for a few weeks, then released. While in detention they were not abused, they said. ¶8. (C/NF) Post also has received from the OSCE mission to Tajikistan an electronic copy of a letter, dated April 6, 2009, from Zainulabidin Merozhev (ISN 1095) to the FOIA office of the Defense Department, requesting his medical records from his time at Guantanamo. The letter notes that he is represented in a habeas corpus case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by Reed Smith, LLP of Washington, DC. Merozhev seeks his Guantanamo medical history in order to "receive proper and immediate medical care." Merozhev has not approached the Embassy. ¶9. (U) Post requests Department guidance on how to respond to these requests. QUAST