Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Saudis Release Five Held at Guantanamo | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
Select Page

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, AP -Five Saudis who were held at the U.S military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before they were handed over to Saudi security officials, have been released, the Saudi Interior Ministry said Tuesday.

The Saudi Press Agency quoted an unnamed official as saying the five were released after they underwent &#34the regular procedures and completed the prison terms which they received according to court verdicts.&#34

The report did not name the five, say when they were handed to Saudi authorities or for how long they were detained in Guantanamo and in Saudi jails.

Last month, the United States released three Saudi men from Guantanamo to Saudi custody.

The United States holds more than 500 prisoners from 44 countries at the base in eastern Cuba but the government declines to provide a breakdown of their citizenship, ages or the reasons they are being held.

American lawyers representing Saudi detainees at Guantanamo said in June that 124 Saudis were held there.

Yaser Esam Hamdi, a Saudi-American held in U.S. solitary confinement for nearly three years without charges, was released and returned to Saudi Arabia in October after the Justice Department said he no longer posed a threat to the United States. Hamdi, who was captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2001, gave up his American citizenship as part of the conditions of his release.