Omar Hamzayavich Abdulayev, also known as Muhammadi Davlatov, (born October 11, 1978) is a citizen of

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

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 ...

s in

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 ...

. He arrived at Guantanamo on February 9, 2002. Abdulayev was transferred to

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

on July 11, 2016.

Background

According to a profile in the

Miami Herald The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by McClatchy, The McClatchy Company and headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Founded in 1903, it is the fifth-largest newspaper in Florida, serving Miami-Dade, Broward County, Fl ...

he fled civil war in Tajikistan in 1991, when he was 13 years old.

Carol Rosenberg Carol Rosenberg is a senior journalist at ''The New York Times.'' Long a military-affairs reporter at the ''Miami Herald'', from January 2002 into 2019 she reported on the operation of the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camps, at its nav ...

wrote that reviewing his files indicates he was a cooperative captive, who did not participate in the widespread hunger strikes, and that, unlike other captives, he participated in all his annual status reviews. In 2009, the Obama government decided they would no longer claim Omar was an enemy combatant. Omar is one of the Guantanamo captives who, even though he had been cleared for release, said he would rather stay in Guantanamo than be repatriated to his home country because he feared torture.

Habeas corpus petition

Abdulayev had a writ of

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a legal procedure invoking the jurisdiction of a court to review the unlawful detention or imprisonment of an individual, and request the individual's custodian (usually a prison official) to ...

filed on his behalf. Resulting from arguments in his habeas petition, that he would face torture if he were repatriated, Abdulayev had a protective order, intended to protect him from repatriation. In 2008, his case was amalgamated with those of several dozen other captives, in 05-CV-2386 before

US District Court Judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...

Reggie B. Walton. On December 29, 2008, Allison M. Lefrak filed protected information, under seal, on his behalf.

Transfer considerations

, writing in the ''

'', reports that Omar Abdulayev fears being repatriated to Tajikistan, and wants to remain in Guantanamo. Quoting Abdulayev's lawyer Matthew J. O'Hara, Rosenberg reported Abdulayev was a refugee who had fled Tajikistan to Afghanistan when he was thirteen years old. Rosenberg wrote that Abdulayev says camp authorities allowed Tajikistani security officials to meet with him, and that they told him he could be released—if he agreed to pretend to be a Muslim militant, and spy on Muslim militants in Tajikistan. She reported that the Tajikistani security officials threatened retribution when he declined to serve as a spy. Department of Justice officials told

U.S. District Court Judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...

Reggie Walton Reggie Barnett Walton (born February 8, 1949) is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He is a former presiding judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Early li ...

on June 3, 2009, that they would no longer try to defend classifying him an enemy combatant. Abdulayev's lawyer, Matthew J. O'Hara, during a November 2009 interview on ''

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

'', that among the reasons Abdulayev fears repatriation to Tajikistan is that the family he left behind in a Pakistani refugee camp has disappeared. All efforts to contact them, following his 2001 capture, had failed. O'Hara said Abdulayev's father died in 1994, attempting to return to Tajikistan. O'Hara said two of the other Tajikistanis received long prison terms following their repatriation. Press reports stated a Tajik captive named "Muhammadi Davlatov" was transferred to

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

on July 11, 2016, together with Yemeni captive Mansur Ahmad Saad al-Dayfi.

References

External links

Who Are the Remaining Prisoners in Guantánamo? Part Five: Captured in Pakistan (1 of 2)
Andy Worthington, September 29, 2010
Obama’s Failure To Deliver Justice To The Last Tajik In Guantánamo
Andy Worthington, July 21, 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Abdulayev, Omar Detainees of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp Tajikistani extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Living people 1978 births Tajikistani expatriates Expatriates in Pakistan