VZCZCXRO9556
OO RUEHDBU
DE RUEHDBU #0996/01 2361203
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O R 241203Z AUG 09
FM AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0680
INFO RUEHDBU/AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE 1421

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