U. S. releases six prisoners to Uruguay
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Six prisoners held for 12 years at Guantanamo Bay have arrived as refugees in Uruguay, a South American nation with only a tiny Muslim population, amid a renewed push by U. S. President Barack Obama to close the prison.
The six men — four Syrians, a Tunisian and a Palestinian — were detained as suspected militants with ties to al- Qaida in 2002 but were never charged.
They had been cleared for release since 2009 but could not be sent home and the U. S. struggled to find countries willing to take them.
Uruguayan President Jose Mujica agreed to accept the men as a humanitarian gesture and said they would be given help getting established in a country of 3.3 million with a total Muslim population of perhaps 300 people.
“We are very grateful to Uruguay for this important humanitarian action, and to President Mujica for his strong leadership in providing a home for individuals who cannot return to their own countries,” U. S. State Department envoy Clifford Sloan said.
Among those transferred was Abu Wa’el Dhiab, a 43- year- old Syrian on a long- term hunger strike protesting his confinement who was at the centre of a legal battle in U. S. courts over the military’s use of force- feeding.
The Pentagon identified the other Syrians sent to Uruguay on Saturday as Ali Husain Shaaban, 32; Ahmed Adnan Ajuri, 37; and Abdelahdi Faraj, 33. Also released were Palestinian prisoner Mohammed Abdullah Taha Mattan, 35, and 49- year- old Adel bin Muhammad El Ouerghi of Tunisia.
Uruguay’s government issued a statement confirming the arrival, repeating the text of a letter from Mujica to Obama saying they had been subject to “an atrocious kidnapping” at Guantanamo and urging the U. S. to end its 53- year- old embargo of Cuba.
Uruguayan officials gave no other details Sunday on the transfers. Cori Crider, a lawyer for Dhiab from the human- rights group Reprieve, praised Mujica, a former leftist guerrilla who himself was imprisoned for more than a decade.
The U. S. has now transferred 19 prisoners out of Guantanamo this year, all but one of them within the last 30 days, and 136 remain, the lowest number since shortly after the prison opened in January 2002.