Polad Sabir Sirajov

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Polad Sabir Sirajov is a citizen of Azerbaijan who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.^[1]

According to a complete list of the names of the remaining Guantanamo detainees published on April 20, 2006 Sirajov's name is spelled Poolad T. Tsiradzho. ^[2] Sirajov's detainee ID number is 89.

According to a second list of all the Guantanamo detainees, published on May 15, 2006, Sirajov was born on May 6, 1975.^[3]

[edit] Background

Sirajov graduated in 1992 from Turkey's Erciyes University.^[1] He then worked, as a translator, for a Turkish construction company.^[4]

According to his family Sirajov disappeared on February 16, 2001.^[1] They are skeptical that he voluntarily joined up with a radical group because he wasn't particularly religious. The ICRC says he was captured at Mazari Sharif, Afghanistan.

A Summary of Evidence memo was drafted for his Administrative Review Board on March 7, 2005.

He was reported to have been released to the Netherlands.^[5]

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunal notice read to a Guantanamo captive. During the period July 2004 through March 2005 a Combatant Status Review Tribunal was convened to make a determination whether they had been correctly classified as an "enemy combatant". Participation was optional. The Department of Defense reports that 317 of the 558 captives who remained in Guantanamo, in military custody, attended their Tribunals.

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 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.

[edit] Summary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Poolad T. Tsiradzho's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 18 September 2004.^[6] The memo listed the following allegations against him:

a. The detainee is a Taliban fighter:

1. The detainee voluntarily traveled from Azerbaijan to Afghanistan to look for the Taliban, and admitted to fighting the Americans.
2. The detainee admits to being a guard in the Taliban and being issued an AKM-7.62 rifle.

b. The detainee participated in military operations against the coalition.

1. The detainee was injured during an artillery attack by the Northern Alliance Forces.
2. The detainee surrendered to Northern Alliances forces near Mazar-e-Sharif ^[sic] in November 2001.

[edit] Transcript

There is no record that Tsiradzho chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

[edit] Administrative Review Board hearings

Hearing room where Guantanamo captive's annual Administrative Review Board hearings convened for captives whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal had already determined they were an "enemy combatant".^[7]

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.

[edit] First annual Administrative Review Board

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Poolad T. Tsiradzho's first annual Administrative Review Board, on 3 December 2004.^[8]

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a. Commitment

1. The detainee voluntarily traveled from Azerbaijan to Afghanistan to look for the Taliban, and admitted to fighting the Americans.
2. The detainee admits to joining the Taliban as a guard, guarding food supplies.
3. The detainee admits to being a guard in the Taliban and being issued an AKM-7.62 rifle.
4. The detainee surrendered to Northern Alliance Forces near Mazar-E-Sharif in November 2001.

b. Training

The detainee trained at the al Farouq training camp.

c. Connections/Associations

1. Upon arriving in Herat, Afghanistan, the detainee met with a Taliban officer who sent him to Kandahar to meet a designated individual.
2. The designated individual was the owner of a Taliban safe house.
3. The detainee is associated with Abd Al Iraqi.
4. Abd Al Iraqi is an al Qaida lieutenant and veteran Afghan fighter.

d. Intent

1. Detainee stated that he saw on television that there was a war in Afghanistan. He then went to Afghanistan to study and look for the Taliban.
2. The detainee was injured during an artillery attack by Northern Alliance Forces.
3. The detainee stated, "I was fighting, then I was wounded. I stopped fighting the Americans and went on vacation."

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

The detainee denied having any knowledge of the attacks in the U.S. prior to their execution on September 11th, and also denied knowledge of any rumors or plans of future attacks on the U.S. or U.S. interests.

[edit] Second annual Administrative Review Board

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Poolad T. Tsiradzho's second annual Administrative Review Board, on 23 February 2006.^[9] The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention.

[edit] Recruitment

Gamat Suleyman, the head of the Baku's Abu Bakr mosque, denied reports that said Polad had been recruited through the mosque.^[10] Suleyman said that with thousands of worshipers he didn't know all of them personally, but he denied that "Wahabism, which is followed by radicals, including the leader of the Al-Qaeda terror cell bin Laden, has never been propagandized at Abu Bakr."

Rafig Aliyev, chairman of the State Committee for Work with Religious Associations, stated that 54 people had been arrested in the Mosque in the past, and that Wahabism is still promoted there.^[10] He expressed skepticism that a sole individual could contact bin Laden, without help.

[edit] Release

The Azeri-Press Information Agency reported on May 25, 2006 that Sirajov requested that he be released to Russia, not Azerbaijan.^[11]

[edit] Release

The Azeri-Press Information Agency quotes Elchin Behbudov of the Azerbaijan Committee Against Torture, who stated on June 1, 2006, that Sirajov was receiving rehabilitation treatment in a third country.^[12] Behbudov said that Sirajov was expectected to be returned to Russia, not Azeribaijan, when his treatment was complete.

Sirajov has been reported to be on his way to the Netherlands.^[5][13]

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Azerbaijani Guantanamo detainee is Baku resident Polad Sabir Sirajov, Today Azerbijan, April 23, 2006
2. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense
3. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
4. ^ Azerbaijani Guantanamo detainee to be handed over to Azerbaijan soon, Azerbijan Press Agency, April 24, 2006
5. ^ ^{a b} Azerbaijani citizen Polad Sirajov detained in Guantanamo will be handed over to Netherlands, Azeri-Press Information Agency, June 20, 2006
6. ^ OARDEC (18 September 2004). Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Tsiradzho, Poolad T. page 6. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-11-23.
7. ^ Spc Timothy Book. "Review process unprecedented", JTF-GTMO Public Affairs Office, Friday March 10, 2006, pp. pg 1. Retrieved on 2007-10-10. 
8. ^ OARDEC. "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Tsiradzho, Poolad T.", United States Department of Defense, March 7, 2005, pp. pages 28-29. Retrieved on 2007-12-03. 
9. ^ OARDEC (23 February 2006). Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Tsiradzho, Poolad T. pages 67-69. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-11-23.
10. ^ ^{a b} Bin Laden's alleged aide Azeri, AzerNews, March 13, 2006
11. ^ ICRC representatives visit Azerbaijani Guantanamo detainee Polad Sirajov, Azeri-Press Information Agency, May 25, 2006
12. ^ Azerbaijani accused of linking with al-Gaeda not proved to commit crime, Azeri-Press Information Agency, June 1, 2006
13. ^ Azerbaijani Guantanamo detainee will be handed over to Netherlands, Today.AZ, June 20, 2006