According to a profile in the
Miami Herald he fled civil war in Tajikistan in 1991, when he was 13 years old.
Carol Rosenberg 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==