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Oybek Jamaludinovich Jabbarov, a former prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, spent five years in captivity even though early on it was decided he had no information to offer. The former shepherd now lives in Ireland.
Jabbarov is one of the two Guantanamo prisoners who were released to Ireland in 2009. In Ireland he was reunited with his wife and sons.
In May 2002 Jabbarov was shipped to the military prison camp at Guantanamo, in Cuba. The shepherd had been arrested while travelling to Pakistan in a truck owned by a local warlord according to reports in the Irish Examiner.
He had taken a ride in an effort to find employment while his pregnant wife and sons were living in a refugee camp in Afghanistan. He was handed over to American soldiers, along with a group of Pakistani passengers. Most likely the exchange was made for a reward.
According to the newly released Wikileaks document the United States military kept him in the military camp not because he had committed any offense but because his past military training could have been useful to terrorist groups.
The report, dated January 2004, said "[The] detainee has had some level of combatant training and has skills and the capability to participate in or support terrorism…Based on information collected and available to Joint Task Force Guantanamo as of December 2003 detainee (ID number 452) is assessed as neither being a member of al-Qaeda nor a Taliban leader, but possibly an Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) member.
"Moreover, based on the detainee’s folder, the knowledgeability brief, and subsequent interrogations by Joint Task Force Guantanamo, the detainee is of low intelligence value to the US."
The report confirmed that Jabborov was not a member of al-Qaeda or the Taliban. His interrogators believed that he was involved with the (IMU) and became involved in arms after being conscripted. He moved to Tajikistan and where war broke out in 1997 he was sent to Afghanistan.
The short document explained that Jabbarov had claimed to be an agent for the Uzbekistan Intelligence Agency. He had been cooperative through his time in Cuba.
In 2007 Jabbarov was cleared for release. It was not until September 2009 that he was finally moved to Ireland.
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