Guantanamo inmate not senior al Qaeda suspect
An Afghan man held for 14 years in Guantanamo Bay is to be released after the United States government said that he was ‘‘probably misidentified’’ as an al Qaeda operative.
Abdul Zahir, 44, has spent almost a third of his life imprisoned on Cuba and has not met the youngest of his three children.
His case was heard before a parole board for the first time on June 9 this year, after more than a dec- ade of appeals from his lawyers that he be charged with a crime or acquitted.
The Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba now holds 76 prisoners, 31 of whom have been scheduled for release. US President Barack Obama came to office promising to close the prison but was reported two weeks ago to have abandoned plans to do so by executive order before he stands down.
Zahir was accused of being a senior al Qaeda member involved in research into nuclear and chemical terror attacks after his arrest by US forces in 2002.
The US government said six intelligence agencies had concluded last year that Zahir was more likely a low-level bookkeeper who sometimes worked for the Taliban government in Afghanistan, translating reports from al Qaeda members based in Kabul between 1996 and 2001.
A charge that he was involved in a grenade attack that seriously injured a Canadian journalist in March 2002 was dropped because of apparent confusion with a senior al Qaeda suspect.
Both men had sometimes used the alias Abdul Bari, a common name.
Another inmate cleared for release was Mohamedou Ould Slahi, 45.
The Moroccan wrote Guantanamo Diary, detailing the use of ‘‘enhanced interrogation techniques’’ by US troops, widely regarded as torture.