Rasul Kudayev (born January 23, 1984) is a Russian citizen who was held in

extrajudicial detention Administrative detention is arrest and detention of individuals by the state without trial. A number of jurisdictions claim that it is done for security reasons. Many countries claim to use administrative detention as a means to combat terrorism ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Guantanamo Bay detention camp The Guantanamo Bay detention camp, also known as GTMO ( ), GITMO ( ), or simply Guantanamo Bay, is a United States military prison within Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (NSGB), on the coast of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. It was established in 2002 by p ...

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

Early life

Rasul Kudayev was born in 1984 in the Russian republic of

Kabardino-Balkaria Kabardino-Balkaria (), officially the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, is a republic of Russia located in the North Caucasus. As of the 2021 Census, its population was 904,200. Its capital is Nalchik. The area contains the highest mountain in ...

. In 1995, while a young teenager, Kudayev won a

wrestling Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

.Eight Russian Citizens Kept at Guantanamo Base
, ''

Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, 'Truth') is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most in ...

'', September 8, 2003 He adopted the name Abdullah Kafkas and traveled to

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

to pursue a career in wrestling.

Guantánamo detention

In November 2001, Kudayev traveled to Kunduz, Afghanistan, where he worked at an Arab medical clinic for foreign fighters, according to

Guantánamo Guantánamo (, , ) is a municipality and city in southeast Cuba and capital of Guantánamo Province. Guantánamo is served by the Caimanera port near the site of a U.S. naval base. The area produces sugarcane and cotton wool. These are traditi ...

files released by

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is a non-profit media organisation and publisher of leaked documents. It is funded by donations and media partnerships. It has published classified documents and other media provided by anonymous sources. It was founded in 2006 by ...

in 2011. He was arrested in Afghanistan and initially held at a prison in

Mazar-i-Sharif Mazar-i-Sharīf ( ; Dari and ), also known as Mazar-e Sharīf or simply Mazar, is the fifth-largest city in Afghanistan by population, with the estimates varying from 500,000-680,000. It is the capital of Balkh province and is linked by highway ...

before being transferred to Guantánamo around February 12, 2002. Military interrogators at Guantánamo quickly concluded that Kudayev had no ties to

al-Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...

or the

Taliban , leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders , leader1_name = {{indented plainlist, * Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013) * Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016) * Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...

and that the information he provided was not valuable. A dossier signed by Geoffrey Miller, the prison commander, on March 28, 2002, indicated that Kudayev had no further intelligence value. Despite this assessment, it took nearly two years for him to be released to the Russian government on February 27, 2004.

Release

Kudayev, and six other Russian Guantánamo detainees (including Ruslan Odizhev who also lived in Nalchik), were repatriated to Russia, where they faced charges of illegal border crossing, being members of a criminal group and being a

mercenary A mercenary is a private individual who joins an armed conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any other official military. Mercenaries fight for money or other forms of payment rather t ...

in an armed conflict, but were released without trial shortly after. In 2005, he was arrested in

Nalchik Nalchik (, ; ; ) is the capital city of Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia, situated at an altitude of in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains; about northwest of Beslan (Beslan is in the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania). It covers an area of ...

for allegedly taking part in the preparation of the rebel raid, and participation in the attack itself (taking the road police post in Khasanya suburb of Nalchik). On December 2, 2008, he was reported to have been seriously ill. According to

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...

, Kudayev has yet to stand trial. They reported that he acquired serious liver disease in Guantanamo, which Russian authorities have declined to treat. They report that he was receiving medical treatment for his liver disease at the time authorities assert he was engaging in the Nalchik attack. They claim his confession was coerced through beatings and coercive interrogation techniques.

Detention in Russia

Kudayev was arrested in the southern Russian city of

following an assault on government facilities in October 2005. He was accused of leading a group responsible for the death of a police officer during the attack. According to his lawyers and family, he was tortured into signing a confession. He was transferred to FBU IZ-7/1, a remand center in Kabardino-Balkaria. The ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' reported he was apprehended: ''"in the southern Russian city of Nalchik after an assault on government facilities."'' Russian authorities have held him in extrajudicial detention—they have not laid any charges against him.

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

reported on March 11, 2011, that Kudayev’s health deteriorated significantly, presenting with a high fever, cough, and breathing difficulties. Doctors who treated Kudayev's lawyer faced extensive questioning, which likely discouraged local medical professionals from getting involved in his case. In December 2014, the court case on the raid was still in progress.

Alleged recidivism

On May 20, 2009, the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', citing an unreleased

Pentagon In geometry, a pentagon () is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple polygon, simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simple or list of self-intersecting polygons, self-intersecting. A self-intersecting ...

document, reported that

Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...

officials claimed Kudayev was one of 74 former Guantanamo captives who ''"are engaged in terrorism or militant activity."'' A 2014 report by the

New America Foundation New America, formerly the New America Foundation, is an American Modern liberalism in the United States, liberal think tank founded in 1999. It focuses on a range of public policy issues, including national security, technology, health, gender, ...

identified Kudayev as one of 54 former Guantánamo detainees confirmed or suspected of engaging in militant activities against either U.S. or non-U.S. targets. He was classified under Category 4: Former GTMO Detainees Suspected of Engaging in Militant Activities Against Non-U.S. Targets.

References

External links

The Pentagon Can’t Count: 22 Juveniles Held at Guantánamo
Andy Worthington {{DEFAULTSORT:Kudayev, Rasul 1984 births Living people People from Prokhladny, Kabardino-Balkar Republic Russian Muslims Russian wrestlers Guantanamo detainees known to have been released Russian extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Juveniles held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp Sportspeople from Kabardino-Balkaria