US allows release of elderly man detained for 16 years

AN ELDERLY man from Pakistan languishing in Guantanamo Bay detention centre for more than 16 years without being charged has been approved for release, his lawyer said.

Saifullah Paracha, 73, detained on the suspicion of facilitating Al Qaeda, is one of three people approved for release by the prisoner review board which concluded that he is no longer a continuing threat to the US.

US authorities said Paracha, a wealthy businessman who lived in America and owned property in New York City, was an “Al Qaeda facilitator” and helped two conspirators in the September 11 terror plot with a financial transaction. However, Paracha, denied the allegation, saying he did not know they were Al Qaeda operatives.

Detained in Thailand in 2003, Paracha has been held at Guantanamo since September 2004 and made eight appearances before the prisoner review board over the years, a report said. Now suffering from several ailments including diabetes, he is the oldest of the 40 detainees held in the detention centre.

Paracha’s lawyer Shelby Sullivan-Bennis said while there are no impediments for him to walk free, the approval does not mean his release is imminent as the US government has to negotiate a repatriation agreement with Pakistan, according to a report in Dawn newspaper on Tuesday (18).

In 2005, a New York court had convicted his son Uzair Paracha of providing support to terrorism, but he was cleared by a judge in 2020.

Guantanamo Bay detention centre was set up in 2002 after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. The US said it could hold detainees indefinitely without charges, a policy criticised by human rights organisations for years.