Abdulrahim Kerimbakiyev

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Abdulrahim Kerimbakiyev is a citizen of Kazakhstan held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] Kerimbakiev detainee ID number was 521. The Department of Defense reports that Kerimbakiev was born on January 4, 1983 in Semei, Kazakhstan.

Main article: minors detained in the global war on terror

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a small trailer, the same width, but shorter, than a mobile home. The Tribunal's President sat in the big chair. The detainee sat with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor in the white, plastic garden chair. A one way mirror behind the Tribunal President allowed observers to observe clandestinely. In theory the open sessions of the Tribunals were open to the press. Three chairs were reserved for them. In practice the Tribunal only intermittently told the press that Tribunals were being held. And when they did they kept the detainee's identities secret. In practice almost all Tribunals went unobserved.

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 a 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 Tribunals. 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.

Kerimbakiev chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[2]

[edit] Allegations

The allegations against Kerimbakiev were:^[2]

a. -- The general summary of the allegations that establish an association with terrorism were missing from the transcript. --

1. The Detainee traveled to Kabul, Afghanistan from Kazakhstan in September, 2000.
2. Detainee’s travel route took him through Karachi, Islamabad and Peshawar, Pakistan and through Kandahar, Afghanistan.
3. The Detainee has family ties to known terrorists in Pakistan.
4. One of Detainee’s “family ties” is a member of a terrorist group responsible for attacks in Uzbekistan.
5. The Detainee resided in Taliban provided housing and worked as a cook in a Taliban camp.
6. The Detainee was captured in December 2001 at his house in Kabul.

[edit] Testimony

Kerimbakiev acknowledged traveling to Kabul in September 2000. He traveled with ten family members, his grandmother and siblings.^[2]

He denied having any relatives in Pakistan.

He denied that any of his family were tied to any terrorist group in Uzbekistan.

He confirmed being capured in 2001, in the middle of Ramadan.

He said he and his family were driven to travel to Afghanistan through poverty. He acknowledged that the Taliban had provided them with a house, where he tried to grow vegetables.

Kerimbakiev seemed confused by many of the Tribunal's questions, and didn't answer many of them. His Tribunal asked, several times, what he did in return for the Taliban's generosity. It is one of the questions he didn't answer.

[edit] Administrative Review Board hearing

Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board hearings. The Administrative Review Boards weren't authorized to review whether a detainee qualified for POW status, and they weren't authorized to review whether a detainee should have been classified as an "enemy combatant".

They were authorized to consider whether a detainee should continue to be detained by the United States, because they continued to pose a threat -- or whether they could safely be repatriated to the custody of their home country, or whether they could be set free.

The factors for and against continuing to detain Kerimbakiev were among the 121 that the Department of Defense released on March 3, 2006.^[3]

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a. Commitment

1. The detainee traveled to Kabul, Afghanistan from Kazakhstan in September 2000.
2. Detainee's travel route took him through Karachi, Islamabad and Peshawar, Pakistan and through Kandahar, Afghanistan.
3. The detainee was recruited by the Taliban in Kazakhstan.
4. The detainee was captured in December 2001 at his house in Kabul, Afghanistan.

b. Connections/Associations

1. The detainee has family ties to known terrorists in Pakistan.
2. One of the detainee's "family ties" is a member of a terrorist group responsible for attacks in Uzbekistan.
3. The detainee is a member of the Eastern Turkestan Islamic Party/Movement (ETIP/ETIM).
4. The detainee and his family were financially supported by the Taliban and resided in Taliban provided housing. In October 2001, the detainee departed Kabul, Afghanistan to work as a cook at a Taliban Military Camp.
5. The detainee and the individuals he traveled with, chose a cover story for their recruitment in Kazakhstan.

c. Other Relevant Data

Anti-Taliban Forces in Kabul, Afghanistan captured the detainee and seven other al Qaida members; there were also 3 anti-aircraft missiles confiscated at the time.

[edit] The following primary factors favor release or transfer:

The detainee denied having any terrorist affiliation or information about terrorist activities directed or planned against the United States. He further denied knowing about anyone possibly having such information.

[edit] Missing Transcript

Kerimbakiev had agreed to cooperate in an interview with his Assisting Military Officer, but he chose not to attend his Administrative Review Board hearing.^[4] His Assisting Military Officer submitted a summary of his interview with Kerimbakiev to the Board. The Department of Defense did not include that summary together with the transcript that mentions it.

[edit] Response to the factors

[edit] Response to Board's questions

[edit] Release

The Miami Herald reported that three of the four Kazakh detainees in Guantanamo were repatriated and set free on December 21, 2006.^[5] According to the Herald, Abdullah Tohtasinovich Magrupov, Ihlkham Battayev and Yakub Abahanov were the three released men, and Abdulrahim Kerimbakiev remains in detention..

[edit] See also

• Terrorism in Kazakhstan

[edit] References

1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
2. ^ ^{a b c} Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Abdulrahim Kerimbakiev's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 1-9
3. ^ Factors for and against the continued detention (.pdf) of Abdulrahim Kerimbakiev Administrative Review Board, May 2, 2005 - page 43
4. ^ Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Abdulrahim Kerimbakiev's Administrative Review Board hearing - pages 136-137
5. ^ "Three ex-Guantánamo detainees free in Kazakhstan", 'Miami Herald', December 21, 2006. Retrieved on December 21, 2007.