Maroof Saleemovich Salehove
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Maroof Saleemovich Salehove | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born: | March 3, 1978 Dushanbe, Tajikistan |
| Detained at: | Guantanamo |
| ID number: | 208 |
| Conviction(s): | no charge, held in extrajudicial detention |
| Status | Determined not to have been an enemy combatant after all |
Maroof Saleemovich Salehove is a citizen of Tajikistan held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.[1] His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 208. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts report that he was born on March 3, 1978, in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
Contents |
[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal
 |
The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.(December 2007) Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. |
Initially the Bush Presidency 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 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 Presidency's definition of an enemy combatant.
[edit] Summary of Evidence memo
A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Maroof Saleemovich Salehove's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 8 December 2004.[5] The memo listed the following allegations against him:
- a. The detainee is associated with the Taliban:
- The detaiene traveled to Pakistan to study the Koran, even though he did not understand the language in which it was being taught.
- The detainee traveled from Pakistan to Afghanistan after 11 September 2001.
- b. The detainee participated in military operations against the coalition.
- The detainee was at Mazar e sharif [sic] .
- The detainee received training on the AK-47.
- Northern Alliance Forces captured the detainee.
[edit] Transcript
Maroof Saleemovich Salehove chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[6]
[edit] Response to the allegations
- Maroof Saleemovich Salehove confirmed that he traveled to Pakistan to study the Koran -- even though he didn't speak Arabic:
This is the rule of Islam. Once you accept this religion you must read the Koran; it is the order of Allah. It doesn't matter whether you understand Arabic or the Koran or not; you must read it. People who do not read the Koran are not Muslims.
- Maroof Saleemovich Salehove confirmed that he traveled to Afghanistan after September 11th, 2001.
- In response to the allegation that he was "at Mazar e Sharif" *Maroof Saleemovich Salehove responded:
That's not true. I was captured in Mazar e Sharif while I was traveling through the city. I was not there.
- In response to the allegation that he received training on the AK-47 Maroof Saleemovich Salehove responded:
I got the AK-47 training when I was thirteen or fourteen years old. I was a refugee in Afghanistan and someone in the mosque just taught us three or four times how to assemble and disassemble the AK-47.
- In response to the allegation that he was captured by the Northern Alliance Maroof Saleemovich Salehove replied that he was captured by Dostam.
[edit] Opening statement
When asked if he had anything else to add Maroof Saleemovich Salehove offered an extended account of his capture:
- He left Tajikistan due to the civil war. He left Tajikistan so he wouldn't be drawn into hostilities.
- After six months or so studying the Koran in Pakistan he acquired a "little shop" in Molton.
- He denied fighting against either the USA or the Northern Alliance. He suggested it didn't make sense for him to take steps to avoid the little civil war in his own country to seek out a larger war in Afghanistan.
- He pointed out that the Northern Alliance are Farsi speakers like himself.
- He acknowledged that the man who showed him how to disassemble or reassemble an AK-47 when he was thirteen years old living in a refugee camp wanted to recruit him into hostilities -- in the civil war back in Tajikistan. Instead he was able to return to his parent's care.
- He repeated that when he was captured he was just an unarmed traveler -- not a combatant.
- After being reminded by his Personal Representative he said he felt safe traversing Afghanistan when traveling between Pakistan and Tajikistan because, until the American intervention, the warring factions had not troubled ordinary travelers.
- After being reminded by his Personal Representative he described learning, in Konduz that Afghanistan was no longer safe for him. A friendly waiter, at a cafe in Konduz, recognized his accent, and warned him that all foreigners were being captured. The friendly waiter helped him find some Afghans from Badakshan Province, with whom it would be safe for him to turn around and try to make his way back to Pakistan. However they were captured by Afghans near Mazar e Sharif.
We were close to entering the city of Mazar e Sharif and people of Jalalabad asked us to get out of the car and they handcuffed us. They made us sit on the ground. I don't know what happened; maybe someone was trying to runaway [sic] or something because I heard some shooting. When I open my eyes I found myself in the hospital.
- Americans visited him in the hospital. They told him not to worry, that he would be returned to Tajikistan. Instead he was sent to Kandahar, then to Guantanamo.
[edit] Response to Tribunal questions
- He was 23 years old when he was captured in 2001.
- He left Tajikistan for Pakistan in 1997 or early 1998, in order to avoid military service, and wait out the civil war.
- When he had left he had flown directly from Tajikistan to Pakistan, but when he learned the Tajikistan civil war was over, and he thought it would be safe to return he couldn't fly because his passport had expired. He knew that a passport had never been required to cross the Afghan-Pakistan border, so he thought he could safely travel overland. In addition he thought it would be cheaper than flying.
- He had never heard of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan prior to his arrival in Guantanamo.
- He offered a long reply to a question about his original choice of Pakistan. A generous man he met hitchhiking, when he was fleeing his military service in Pakistan, offered him considerable help. The help was conditional. He had to promise to study the Koran when he arrived.
-
Q: The gentleman that helped you get to Pakistan to study the Koran. Did he not want anything in return for his assistance? Did he eventually want you to come back and share that knowledge?
A: This is part of Islam. A Muslim just does things for the sake of God. Like if they make a young boy read the KOran. That would be big thanks to God. They do that just for the sake of God. When he talked to me he liked me a lot and he said that I was a good boy and I deserve to read the Koran.
- He acknowledged that he was concerned about readmittance to Tajikistan. But he missed his family.
[edit] Release
Maroof Saleemovich Salehove was one of the 38 captives the Bush Presidency determined had not been enemy combatants after all.[7] It is not known when he released.
[edit] References
- ^ list of prisoners, US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
- ^ Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court, New York Times, November 11, 2004 - mirror
- ^ Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004
- ^ Annual Administrative Review Boards for Enemy Combatants Held at Guantanamo Attributable to Senior Defense Officials. United States Department of Defense (March 6, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-09-22.
- ^ OARDEC (8 December 2004). Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal - Salehove, Maroof Saleemovich pages 25. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-12-09.
- ^ OARDEC. "Summarized Unsworn Detainee Statement (ISN 208)", United States Department of Defense, date redacted, pp. pages 39-46. Retrieved on 2007-12-09.
- ^ "Detainees Found to No Longer Meet the Definition of "Enemy Combatant" during Combatant Status Review Tribunals Held at Guantanamo", United States Department of Defense, November 19, 2007. Retrieved on 2008-04-15.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
