Ilkham Turdbyavich Batayev
Ilkham Turdbyavich Batayev | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 7, 1973 Abaye, Kazakhstan |
| Occupation | Former detainee at Guantanamo Bay detention facility |
| Known for | Detained without formal charges at Guantanamo Bay; released and repatriated to Kazakhstan in 2006 |
Ilkham Turdbyavich Batayev (born 7 November 1973) was detained without formal charges at the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention facility located in Cuba. He was assigned the Guantanamo Internment Serial Number 84. Batayev's place of birth is Abaye, Kazakhstan.
Captured in Afghanistan during 2001, Batayev was subsequently returned to Kazakhstan on 15 December 2006.
Tom Johnson, Legal Counsel for Batayev
On 9 August 2006, Tom Johnson, an attorney based in Portland, Oregon, representing Batayev, was featured in the Willamette Week. Johnson emphasized Batayev’s persistent aspiration for release.
Habeas Corpus Proceedings
Elham Battayav was part of a group of sixteen detainees from Guantanamo whose joint habeas corpus petitions were considered by U.S. District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton on 31 January 2007.
Return and Release
The Portland-based law firm Perkins Cole announced Batayev’s repatriation on 18 December 2006. The legal team—comprising Fortino, Tom Johnson, and Cody Weston—provided pro bono representation beginning in late 2004. Their efforts included several visits to Guantanamo Bay, the Kazakh embassy in Washington, D.C., and Kazakhstan itself to liaise with Batayev’s family members, media representatives, and witnesses.
According to the Miami Herald, three out of four Kazakh detainees held at Guantanamo were returned and freed on 21 December 2006. Alongside Batayev, the other individuals released were Abdullah Tohtasinovich Magrupov and Yakub Abahanov.
Interview by McClatchy News Service
On 15 June 2008, the McClatchy News Service published a series of reports based on interviews with 66 former Guantanamo detainees.<ref name=McClatchyCaptiveDatabase> Ilkham Batayev was included among those interviewed.[1] The coverage noted Batayev’s hesitance to elaborate on his experiences at Guantanamo or the circumstances that led him to Afghanistan.
The McClatchy investigation also pointed out discrepancies between Batayev’s earlier accounts given to a journalist in 2001, statements during his Tribunal, and information provided to his attorney.[1]
Batayev’s lawyer, Thomas R. Johnson Jr., expressed doubts regarding Batayev’s assertion that militants from the Uzbekistan Islamic Movement abducted and coerced him into fighting in Afghanistan.[1] Johnson indicated that Tribunal officials rejected this version as improbable because it fell outside their typical experience and seemed unlikely within the regional context of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, or Afghanistan: