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Three Guantanamo detainees repatriated to Saudi Arabia

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Friday that three Guantanamo Bay detainees have been transferred to Saudi Arabia, their country of origin, where they will undergo judicial review and rehabilitation. Khalid Saad Mohammed, Abdalaziz Kareem Salim Al Noofayaee, and Ahmed Zaid Salim Zuhair were already cleared by the Bush administration, but the DOJ conducted "a comprehensive review" pursuant to President Barack Obama's executive order that also ordered the closure within one year of the Guantanamo detainee facility. This week, one detainee was transferred to the US for trial, four Uighur detainees were transferred to Bermuda, one detainee was transferred to Chad, and one to Iran. According to Matthew Olsen, Executive Director of the Guantanamo Review Task Force, "his marks the largest number of transfers in a single week." US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said last month that the US would continue efforts to reach an agreement with Saudi Arabia to transfer 100 Yemeni detainees who would also undergo rehabilitation, despite reports that two former prisoners have rejoined al Qaeda in Yemen. The Saudi program to rehabilitate Islamic extremists was designed with input from psychiatrists, sociologists, and Muslim clerics. The Saudi Saudi Minister of Interior reports that only nine of the 218 men who have undergone rehabilitation have been rearrested. Guantanamo detainees have been moved to over thirty countries since 2002, and there remain 229 detainees at the detention facilities in Cuba.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on June 13, 2009 (boomark / email).