From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 11/27/2005 11:07 AM
23.11.2005 13:44 MSK
FSB continues to persecute former Guantanamo prisoners
RUSSIA, Moscow. Former Guantanamo Timur Ishmuratov, invited by Amnesty International in London to an international conference “Global Struggle Against Torture: Guantanamo Bay, Bagram, and Beyond” which commenced on November 19, could not leave for the United Kingdom after the FSB confiscated his passport.

According to the “Memorial” human rights center and the Committee Civil Assistance, a letter was received from Ishmuratov telling how special forces are infringing on his freedom of movement. When Timur Ishmuratov went for his passport in the Nefteyugansk Tyumenska Oblast, where it was registered, officials from the local FSB section swiped his passport from the table and said that upon the request of their Tatar colleagues they would not give it back to him.

When Ishmuratov visited his family in the Bugulm Republic of Tatarstan, near the train he was met by five militia officers and two officials in civilian clothes, possibly from the FSB. They took Ishmuratov to a militia station and rudely demanded he give up his passport. He said that a document was not issued to him and they should know this. In response, they searched his things and, convinced his passport was not there, released Ishmuratov.

He reported that the FSB officials and militia in Nefteyugansk are collecting information about him and disparaging him in the eyes of his acquaintances, telling them that he is a terrorist and criminal. They even are going so far as to survey the children of his distant relatives.

In the letter Ishmuratov says: “As a result of these actions my family and I are in a state of nervousness about the negative things being said. I appeal to you for help and advice on how to stop this arbitrariness.”

Timur Ishmuratov told human rights activists that on October 25 in Nefteyugansk an FSB official told him that a ‘not guilty’ verdict can still be reconsidered, and therefore Ishmuratov for the time being is not to leave Russia. Regarding the two in civilian clothes, who met him in Bugulm on November 16 along with the militia, it was clear that the the local special forces know Ishmuratov’s face.

The Tatarstan prosecutor appealed the ‘not guilty’ verdict and asked for the case to be reexamined. According to public prosecutor Khismetov there were violations which, “limited the right of the prosecutor to present evidence and influence the contents of questions and answers in front of the jury … The lawyers conveyed their ideas on this or that with evidence presented by the prosecutor… instilling doubt and prejudice by the jury, but the presiding judge did not interrupt the defenders,” Khismetov wrote.

The date of Ishmuratov’s appeal has not been announced.

In addition, human rights activists recall the capture and torture in Nalchik of another former Guantanamo prisoner.

Information Agency PRIMA-News [2005-11-21-Russ-22]
http://www.prima-news.ru/eng/news/news/2005/11/23/34083.html