U.S. Transfers Nine Guantanamo Prisoners to Saudi Arabia
http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-rele...bia-1460838120
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WASHINGTON—The U.S. transferred nine Yemeni detainees from the U.S. prison facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon said Saturday.
The move brings the prison’s population down to 80, including 26 cleared for transfer if security conditions can be met. U.S. officials have said they expect that all of the prisoners currently approved for transfer will be released by the end of the summer.
Many of the prisoners remaining at the facility are Yemeni and are difficult to relocate because the U.S. must find third countries to accept them because of unrest in Yemen. Saturday’s transfer comes ahead of President Barack Obama’s trip to Saudi Arabia in coming days and is the largest single movement of prisoners in 2016.
“The United States is grateful to the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its humanitarian gesture and willingness to support ongoing U.S. efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “The United States coordinated with the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to ensure these transfers took place consistent with appropriate security and humane treatment measures.”
Saudi Arabia confirmed that the nine detainees arrived in the kingdom Saturday evening.
Their transfer had been requested by exiled Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and was approved by King Salman of Saudi Arabia, according to a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency and attributed to a ministry of interior spokesman. Mr. Hadi is an ally of the Saudi monarchy.
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Saudi Arabia runs a rehabilitation program to help former jihadists re-enter society. It has only taken in one other Yemeni prisoner, in 2007, and has mostly repatriated its own citizens from the facility. The nine prisoners involved in the latest transfer had been in the Guantanamo detention center since 2002, and none had been charged with a crime.
