Guantanamo Inmate Repatriated To Saudi Arabia

Abdul Shalabi was sent back to Saudi Arabia, where he was expected to take part in a rehabilitation program for militants. He has spent nearly nine years on hunger-strike, protesting against his detention, and was fed with a tube through his nose daily throughout his detention, court records seen by AP showed.

Shalabi’s brother had been transferred out of Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia during George W. Bush’s presidency.

There are 114 detainees remaining at the prison.

A government review board, which includes military and intelligence officials, determined it was no longer necessary to detain him at Guantanamo, though it noted that he “probably continues to sympathize with extremists” in a statement.

The USA defence department has said that the 39-year-old was a member of al Qaeda and a longtime bodyguard of Bin Laden.

However, Shalabi was never charged with a crime during his detention.

The key to the transfer’s approval was Saudi Arabia’s rehabilitation program, the review board stated in an unclassified summary obtained by the New York Times.

The Saudi man was detained by Pakistani forces in December 2001, as he attempted to cross the Afghan-Pakistani border, and the following month was transferred to Guantanamo. He was among the first batch of detainees brought to the prison when it opened at the American naval station in Cuba on January 11, 2002.

Even if the administration is able to work out security agreements and find countries to take the remaining cleared prisoners, some detainees still can’t be released.

But closing Guantánamo has proved hard for President Barack Obama, who campaigned on the promise of shuttering the facility.