Shalabi’s nephew was a detainee at the prison who was sent back to Saudi Arabia in 2006.
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Shalabi, 39, launched a hunger strike in 2006 to protest his indefinite confinement without charge. 52 of the remaining detainees are cleared for transfer, and another 48 are eligible for PRB review.
The United States has transferred Abdul Shalabi, a detainee at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the government of Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
“The United States coordinated with the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to ensure this transfer took place consistent with appropriate security and humane treatment measures”, Cook said.
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 U.S. Department of Defense said that Shalabi was a member of radical Islamist militant group Al-Qaeda, and worked as a bodyguard for Bin Laden-who masterminded the 9/11 attacks in New York in 2001, and who was killed by USA marines in a Pakistan raid in May, 2011.
Shalabi’s release follows the recent transfer of another prisoner, Abdurrahman Chekkouri, to his native Morroco.
A page from the 2008 Defense Department assessment of Guantanamo Bay detainee Abdul Rahman Shalabi. In another head shaking decision, his administration has chose to release a Gitmo prisoner with a unsafe past, including reports he once served as Osama Bin Laden’s bodyguard.
With Shalabi’s release, there are now 114 people left at the controversial detention center.
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“Every transfer out of Guantanamo is important, but the administration needs to take bolder action if the detention facility is going to be closed before the president leaves office”. The US transferred 17 detainees to Oman in June, three others to Qatar in April and one to Morocco last week.
