Yakub Abahanov

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Yakub Abahanov is a citizen of Kazakhstan held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] Abahanov's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 526. The Department of Defense reports that Abahanov was born in Semeya, American intelligence analysts provided a birthdate, or an estimated year of birth for all but 22 of the detainees. Abahanov was one the 22 detainees whose age they declined to estimate.

During his Combatant Status Review Tribunal Abdallah Tohtasinovich Magrupov said he had been captured with, two friends from his village, Yakup [sic] and Tolkin. They were both from his village. The official list of detainees, released on May 15, 2006, lists Abahanov as being from Semeya, Kazakhstan, and Magrupov as being from Semey, Kazakhstan.

However Magrupov says they are from Omond, Kazakhstan.

The allegations against Magrupov in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal said he: "...was captured by the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan (UIFSA) and turned over to U.S. custody in December 2001."

Magrupov said that their initial captors imprisoned them in a cellar for over two months.

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct competent tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status.

Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunal. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants -- rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant.

To comply with a Freedom of Information Act request, during the winter and spring of 2005, the Department of Defense released 507 memoranda. Those 507 memoranda each contained the allegations against a single detainee, prepared for their Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The detainee's name and ID numbers were redacted from all but one of the memoranda. However 169 of the memoranda had the detainee's ID hand-written on the top right hand of the first page corner. When the Department of Defense complied with a court order, and released official lists of the detainee's names and ID numbers it was possible to identify who those 169 were written about. Yakub Abahanov was one of those 169 detainees.^[2]

[edit] Allegations

a. The detainee is associated with the Taliban:

The detainee is ######## ####### ####### ####### ####### who relocated with his family in August 2000 [sic] to Afghanistan after recruitment by Taliban representatives working in Semey, KZ [sic].
Detainee was an assistant cook at the Taliban Karabakh camp from August 2001 to October 2001.
The Taliban Karabakh camp served primarily as a field kitchen and transit point for Taliban troops serving on the front lines in the war against Northern Alliance forces.

b. The detainee participated in military operations against the United States or its coalition partners:

Detainee was issued a Kalashnikov rifle, which was used for Taliban guard duty. He claimed to be a good shot.
When detainee was specifically questioned, he admitted to being part of a small fighting team during his employment as an assistant cook.
Detainee claims that Northern Alliance commander, Topan, single-handedly arrested him in his home.