Polad Sabir Sirajov

Azerbaijani Guantanamo detainee

Polad Sabir Sirajov is a citizen of Azerbaijan formerly held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. According to a complete list of the names of the remaining Guantanamo detainees published on April 20, 2006, Sirajov's name is spelled Poolad T. Tsiradzho. Sirajov's Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 89. According to a second list of all the Guantanamo detainees, published on May 15, 2006, Sirajov was born on May 6, 1975. Poolad T Tsiradzho was transferred to Slovakia in January 2010.

Sirajov graduated in 1992 from Turkey's Erciyes University. According to his family Sirajov disappeared on February 16, 2001. Poolad T. Tsiradzho was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges are fighters for the Taliban." In July 2008 the US District Court ruled that his habeas petition was moot. On December 30, 2008 United States Department of Justice official Daniel M. Barish informed the court that the DoJ had filed "factual returns" in seven habeas cases, including captive 89's.

Gamat Suleyman, the head of the Baku's Abu Bakr mosque, denied reports that said Polad had been recruited through the mosque. Suleyman said that with thousands of worshipers he did not know all of them personally, but he denied that "Wahabism, which is followed by radicals, including the leader of the Al Qaeda terror cell bin Laden, has never been propagandized at Abu Bakr." Rafig Aliyev, chairman of the State Committee for Work with Religious Associations, stated that 54 people had been arrested in the Mosque in the past, and that Wahabism is still promoted there. The Azeri Press Information Agency quotes Elchin Behbudov of the Azerbaijan Committee Against Torture, who stated on June 1, 2006, that Sirajov was receiving rehabilitation treatment in a third country. Behbudov said that Sirajov was expectected to be returned to Russia, not Azeribaijan, when his treatment was complete. Sirajov had been reported to be on his way to the Netherlands. The Azeri Press Information Agency reported on March 4, 2009, that Sirajov was still in Guantanamo. They reported that he was believed to be one of the 60 captives who have been cleared for release. In 2009 Spanish newspapers reported Spain was considering accepting his transfer, along with five other men. Polad was transferred to Slovakia in January 2010, with two north African men. Polad and the other men found that Slovakian security officials were insisting they be held under more onerous security restrictions than they experienced in Camp four Guantanamo. In October 2011 Tibor Blažko reported that the two former Guantanamo captives from Egypt and Tunisia who had been transferred to Slovakia had returned to their home countries, while Polad still remained.