Detained for more than 10 years in US detention center in Cuba are released

Five detainees who had been held at the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for more than a decade, have been released, according to public documents. The decisions come as the prison turns 20 this week, since it opened under George W. Bush, a few months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

President Joe Biden has publicly said he wants to close the detention center, and the National Security Council is undergoing a review of the site “to determine the way forward,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said during an interview. press conference on Monday (10).

The prison is infamous for human rights abuses that took place there when prisoners were tortured under the CIA’s so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” program.

The Periodic Review Board, a government entity created during the Obama administration to determine whether detainees at the facility were guilty, announced the decisions in documents posted on its website.

The council released five detainees, including three Yemenis, Moath Hamza Ahmed al-Alwi, Omar Mohammed Ali Al-Rammah, Suhayl Abdul Anam al Sharabi, a Kenyan Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu and a Somali Guled Hassan Duran.

The three Yemenis and the Kenyan were never charged with crimes but were held as “law of war” detainees.

The three Yemenis who have now been released have been detained at Guantánamo since the early 2000s. Al-Rammah has been detained at Guantánamo since May 2003 and has been accused of “becoming an enabler for extremist groups affiliated with Al Qaeda in the late 1990s”. 1990,” according to Department of Defense documents.

Al Sharabi and al-Alwi have been in Guantánamo since 2002, according to Defense Department documents.

Duran, who has been in US custody since 2004 and detained at Guantanamo Bay since 2006, was held as a high-level detainee, according to the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents him. He is the first high-profile detainee to be released by the Periodic Review Board, his attorney Shane Kadidal told CNN.

With these, 18 detainees have already been released for transfer by the Periodic Review Board and are ready to be released, pending diplomatic agreements. Once a detainee is released, he cannot leave prison until the US government makes a diplomatic agreement with another country for him to be released.

Thirty-nine detainees remain in prison, according to Kirby. All detainees eligible for transfer out of prison have been reviewed by the Periodic Review Board since the beginning of the Biden administration, Kirby added.

For detainees who have been released for release, “the diplomatic process is underway to transfer or repatriate them as appropriate,” Kirby said.

Bajabu has been in detention since 2007, he told CNN Mark Maher, a lawyer for the human rights group Reprieve US who represents him. According to Defense Department documents, Bajabu was an enabler of Al Qaeda in East Africa before his arrest. He was never accused of any crime.

The Periodic Review Board noted that its decision to release Bajabu for release was based on its “low level of training and lack of a leadership role in its pre-detention activities”.

“Today’s decision is wonderful news for Abdul Malik, who was wrongfully detained for 15 years without charge or trial,” Maher told CNN. “He wishes to be reunited with his family and we hope the Biden administration will ensure his release happens quickly.”

Duran, who has been detained at Guantanamo since 2006, was accused of supporting and serving as a “key member” of al Qaeda’s East African network in Somalia, according to Defense Department documents.

Duran testified in publicly available court documents that he had been tortured when he was held at a CIA-operated facility after being taken into US custody. He described hours of interrogation with sleep deprivation, little food or water and sexual abuse by the interrogators.