Airat Vakhitov

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Airat Vakhitov, also spelled Ayrat Wakhitov is a Russian held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] Vakhitov is a Muslim from a Turkic ethnic group. He was repatriated with six other Russians in February 2004.

On May 15, 2006 the Department of Defense released its first full official list of all the Guantanamo detainees who were held in military custody.^[2] Airat Vakhitov's name is not on that list. The list includes an individual named Aiat Nasimovich Vahitov.who was born on March 27, 1977, on Naberezhnye Chelny, Tatarstan, Russia.

Russian authorities releaased the detainees after investigations into whether they had broken any Russian laws.

Vakhitov spoke publicly on June 28, 2005 about torture in Guantanamo when he announced he was planning to sue the United States for his mistreatment.^[3] He was invited, by Amnesty International, to speak about Guantanamo torture, in London, on November 2, 2002.

Geidar Dzhemal, chairman of the Islamic Committee of Russia, reported that he was hosting Vakhitov, and another former Guantanamo detainee, Rustam Akhmyarov, following threats by security officials.^[4] According to Dzhemal the security officials had visited Vakhitov, and warned him that he should only talk about torture in Guantanamo Bay, not Russian torture. Dzhemal reported that security officials subsequently seized Vakhitov and Akhmyarov from his apartment on August 29, 2005. He called their seizure a kidnapping because they refused to show their identification. He predicted that the pair would be arrested on trumped up charges, to curtail their human rights activities.

The pair were released from detention on September 2, 2005.^[5]