The United States has released a Saudi prisoner from the Guantanamo high security military prison in Cuba.
A prisoner who had been in prison for 20 years and now the United States recognizes that it had no evidence against him. The detainee was a Saudi engineer who was held as a suspect, although he was never accused of Al-Qaeda attacks on September 11, 2001.
Fuente: ensegundos.do
Ghassan Al-Sharbi, 48, was detained in Faisalabad, Pakistan, in March 2002, with an Al-Qaeda partner. The man was reported because he studied at an aeronautical university in Arizona and attended an aviation school with two kidnappers who participated in the September 11 attacks. The US army had already filed charges against Sharbi and others, but they were dropped in 2008.
However, this man was still held as an enemy fighter in the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba and his status remained in limbo because he was never charged, but his release was not approved either.
In February of last year, the year 2022, the Pentagon Periodic Review Board, which processes the Guantanamo release requests, failed in favor of the release of this man. He argued that he did not have a position as a facilitator or as a leader in Al-Qaeda and that he had good behavior after years of being considered a hostile prisoner. In addition, the Pentagon's Review Board said that this man had physical and mental health problems that it did not specify.
How not to have mental problems being 20 years in prison being innocent.
And we wonder if physical problems have been caused by any abuse or degrading treatment suffered in this prison by being considered a hostile prisoner.
Source: CNN
And now, last Wednesday, a year after the failure that asked for his release, the Defense Department announced that this Arab-Saudi citizen was repatriated to his country 20 years later, not being guilty of any charge.
He was held in this prison for only 48 years and is now released 20 years later, at 68, close to being a septuagenarian, a stolen life, unfairly, a true crime.
And now the Pentagon is trying to justify the unjustifiable, explaining that in February 2022 it was determined that Al-Sharbi's detention was no longer necessary to protect the country against a significant and continuous threat to security. For this reason, Defense Secretary Joe Austin notified the US Congress in September of last year his intention to repatriate him to his country, Saudi Arabia. In the statement, Defense Secretary Austin has the audacity to say the following, let's read it to you:
The United States appreciates the disposition of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other partners to support the US efforts towards a deliberate and exhaustive process focused on responsibly reducing the population of detainees and ultimately closing the facilities of the Guantánamo Bay.
According to the data provided by US authorities, there are currently 31 prisoners in this high-security prison in Guantánamo, Cuba, of which 17 say they can be repatriated.