Five detainees at the USA military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were transferred to the government of the United Arab Emirates, the U.S. Defense Department said on Sunday.
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“In accordance with statutory requirements, the secretary of Defense informed Congress of the United States’ intent to transfer these individuals”, Cook said. The fifth detainee, Ali Ahmad Muhammad al-Razihi, 36, a suspected bodyguard for the late Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, was previously deemed to unsafe to release but a parole board took another look at his case previous year and determined he no longer posed a national security threat and could be transferred.
The Pentagon, in a statement on November 15, said it was “grateful to the government of the United Arab Emirates for its willingness to support ongoing USA efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility”.
The United States of America had held each of the detainees for almost 14 years as wartime prisoners without charging them, The NY Times reported.
They are the first Guantanamo detainees to be accepted by the UAE for resettlement.
A total of 64 out of the remaining 107 detainees are Yemeni, according to the Post.
Even so, the Defense Department is expected to unveil a long-awaited plan outlining how it would close the military prison – a move estimated to cost at least $400 million (373 million euros) annually – despite continued opposition from a Republican-dominated Congress.
Sixty-four Yemenis remain at Guantanamo, The Washington Post reports, with 39 approved for transfer or release.
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Obama signed an executive order on his third day in office to begin the process of shutting down Guantanamo Bay.
