Amnesty International welcomed the transfer but said Guantanamo would remain a ‘glaring, long-lasting stain’ on human rights in the US.
The United States transferred 11 Yemeni detainees from its the infamous Guantanamo Bay detention center in Oman after being held without charge for more than two decades as part of Washington’s so-called “war on terror”.
“The United States appreciates the willingness of the Government of Oman and other partners to support ongoing US efforts to responsibly reduce the detainee population and ultimately close the Guantanamo Bay facility,” the US Department of Defense said in a statement Monday evening.
The US-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) said among the 11 prisoners transferred to Oman this week was Sharqawi al-Hajj, who had been subjected to repeated hunger strikes and hospitalizations at Guantanamo in protest at his 21 years of imprisonment, which followed two years of imprisonment and torture by the CIA.
“Our thoughts are with Mr. Al Hajj as he departs into the free world after nearly 23 years in captivity. His release is hope for him and for us,” said Pardiss Kebriaei, a lawyer at CCR representing al-Hajj.
Only 15 prisoners now remain at Guantanamo, down from a peak of nearly 800 after the al-Qaeda attacks on September 11, 2001, when then-US President George W. Bush established the Guantanamo prison camp to hold suspects indefinitely and without charges and preventing legal challenges to their detention.
Hundreds of mostly Muslim men have been captured from dozens of countries as part of America’s so-called “war on terror,” which has also included the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and covert military operations elsewhere around the world.
Conditions at Guantanamo Bay and the treatment of prisoners have long drawn outrage from human rights groups and United Nations experts who have condemned the prison as a place of “unparalleled notoriety”.
Welcoming the release of the 11, Amnesty International said “the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay is a glaring, long-lasting stain on the human rights record of the United States.”
In the past month, US authorities have released several prisoners from Guantanamo, including Tunisian nationals Ridah bin Saleh al-Yazidi who has been detained in the prison since it was opened in 2002 without ever being charged. He was also released Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajab who was arrested in Kenya in 2007, i two Malaysians who was detained for 18 years without charge.
Successive US administrations have been urged to close Guantanamo or, at the very least, release all those inmates who have never been charged with a crime. Outgoing President Joe Biden promised before the 2020 election that he would try to close Guantanamo, but it remains in place for just a few weeks before he leaves office.
Biden administration officials said they are working to identify suitable countries willing to take Guantanamo detainees who have never been charged with a crime.
CCR said that of the 15 men who remain at Guantanamo, six have not been charged and three have been granted transfer from the US.
The Defense Department said the other nine detainees include two who were convicted and sentenced, and seven who were charged in connection with the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, as well as the September 11, 2001, and 2002 bombings on the resort island of Bali.
