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Arabia

Seven More Gitmo Detainees Arrive in Soddy Arabia

2007-02-22

Saudi Arabia announced yesterday that seven Saudi detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba have been released by US authorities. The Interior Ministry said in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency that the seven detainees arrived in Riyadh yesterday morning. The ministry gave the names of the released detainees as: Majed Al-Harbi, Rashed Al-Ghamdi, Faisal Al-Naser, Muhammad Al-Harbi, Naser Al-Subaei, Abdullah Al-Judi and Majed Al-Qurashi. Interior Minister Prince Naif welcomed the release of the Saudi detainees. “Following directives from Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, the Kingdom is pursuing its efforts to get all Saudis held in Guantanamo Bay released,” he told SPA. According to the spokesman of the Interior Ministry Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, this is the seventh group of detainees to be freed. Al-Turki said that the ministry had arranged for detainees’ families to meet the freed prisoners in Riyadh. Asked about the fate of other detainees previously released from the prison, the spokesman said that they had been tried according to the laws of the Kingdom and released. “All in the six previous groups have been tried and released from prison,” he told Arab News. He said that the latest group had undergone medical tests upon their arrival and would be tried according to the Saudi laws. “If their trials produce no evidence against them, they will be released,” he said. Arab News met some of the freed detainees’ family members yesterday. Abdullah Al-Subaei, the brother of Naser Al-Subaei, said he had learned about his brother’s release from the Interior Ministry which phoned the family early yesterday morning. “We arrived from Jubail this morning to meet Naser in the afternoon,” he said. Abdullah said that his mother had been hospitalized due to high blood pressure due to her constant worrying about her son’s condition in prison. “As soon as we told her the good news, she immediately asked us to take her with us to Riyadh. Her spirits are up and we are all excited,” he went on. He said that it had been several years since he saw his brother and that the family understood that Naser had been captured by US authorities while doing charity work near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. “There have been no letters for over a year. We have been very worried. But thank God, he is back home now,” he said. Abdullah thanked Prince Muhammad ibn Naif, assistant interior minister for security affairs, for his support for the families of the Guantanamo Bay prisoners. The release of the seven Saudis yesterday from Guantanamo puts the remaining number of Saudis still there at 68, down from the original 130, according to attorney Kateb Al-Shammari who represents the families of some of the Saudi detainees.

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Arabia

40 Saudis Likely to Be Freed From Guantanamo Soon

2005-11-06

Forty Saudis are to be freed from the notorious US detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba soon as one Saudi and three Bahrainis returned home yesterday after being released from the detention facility. The news of the impending release was revealed by a Kuwaiti activist. Saudi and Bahraini authorities too promised to keep pressing Washington to free the remaining detainees. “A group of Bahrainis and more than 40 Saudis will be sent back to their countries soon,” Khalid Al-Oudah, the head of the Society of Families of Kuwaiti Prisoners in Guantanamo, said citing “very reliable sources.” Five Kuwaitis released from Guantanamo arrived home Thursday leaving six Kuwaitis at the facility, including Oudah’s son. Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, a spokesman of the Saudi Interior Ministry, said he had no information about the release of 40 prisoners. “I don’t have information on specific number of detainees who would be released but whenever someone is released we issue a statement immediately,” he told Arab News. He said that Saudi Arabia hopes to receive the remaining Saudi detainees from Guantanamo or anywhere they might be held against their will. “There is no timetable for the release of these detainees but there are continued efforts as we witness periodical releases of prisoners,” he said. Al-Turki yesterday announced the release of Majed Afas Radhi Al-Shammari from the US detention camp and his arrival in the Kingdom. “He will be interrogated by authorities here and then they will determine whether to hold him or release him,” he added. A member of the Saudi detainees’ defense team in Riyadh, Kateb Al-Shammari, said he was not aware of the imminent release of any of the 120 Saudis still at Guantanamo. Bahrain said with three of its citizens returning yesterday, only three Bahrainis remain at the camp including Jumah Al-Dossari who reportedly attempted suicide in mid-October. Salman Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, Abdullah Al-Noaimi and Adel Kamil Abdullah Al-Haji returned yesterday aboard a US military plane from Guantanamo, according to Bahraini authorities. “The three have arrived and they are in their houses,” said Adel Al-Moawdah, the deputy speaker of Bahrain’s Parliament who has been pushing for their release and greeted one of them on arrival. The three were arrested four years ago by Pakistani authorities and handed over to US forces during the 2001 war in Afghanistan. “It was an ordeal for them and their families. We have been working for their release since day one,” said Information Minister Muhammad Abdul Ghaffar.

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