(Washington) The United States has approved the release of five additional detainees from the Guantanamo military prison, where 39 prisoners are still held suspected of being accomplices of terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda, according to official Pentagon documents seen on Wednesday.
Posted at 11:47 a.m.
Yemenis Mouaz Hamza al-Alaoui, Souheil al-Charabi and Omar al-Rammah, Somali Guled Hassan Duran and Kenyan Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu received their discharge vouchers at the end of 2021, according to new documents released this week by the Commission of Guantanamo review.
The green light for their release brings the number of detainees promised to be released to 18 if the United States finds them a base, which could delay their release, as Washington does not repatriate the ex-prisoners to Yemen, the country in the grip of a violent civil war, nor to Somalia, another country in crisis.
Independent experts commissioned by the United Nations this week ordered the United States to close its military prison at Guantanamo, site of “incessant violations of human rights”.
The infamous detention center, opened just 20 years ago after the jihadist attacks of September 11 as part of the “war on terror”, still houses 39 detainees.
Ten of them, including the suspected mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, are awaiting trial by a military commission, which has issued only two convictions in two decades.
Two have been sentenced and nine others are hoping for their release.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the US administration “remains committed to the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison”.