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