ISLAMABAD — Two Pakistani brothers held by america at Guantanamo Bay detention facility for 20 years had been freed and returned house on Friday to be reunited with their households, officers mentioned.
Pakistan arrested Abdul and Mohammed Rabbani on suspicion of hyperlinks to al-Qaida in 2002 in Karachi, the nation’s southern port and largest metropolis. That very same yr, Ramzi Binalshibh, a prime al-Qaida chief, was arrested by Pakistan’s spy company Inter-Providers Intelligence on a tip from the CIA.
The Rabbanis’ releases come months after a 75-year-old Pakistani, Saifullah Paracha, was free of Guantanamo.
The Overseas Ministry later Friday launched an announcement welcoming the brothers’ launch.
“We’re happy that these Pakistani nationals have lastly reunited with their households,” the ministry mentioned, including that it had “coordinated an in depth inter-agency course of to facilitate repatriation” of the 2 brothers.
Earlier within the day, Pakistani lawmaker Mushtaq Ahmed Khan, chairman of the human rights committee within the higher home of Pakistan’s Parliament, tweeted that the Rabbanis had landed on the Islamabad airport.
“There was no trial, no courtroom proceedings, no fees in opposition to them. Congratulations on their launch. Thanks Senate of Pakistan,” Khan tweeted.
Khan later informed The Related Press that the brothers had been on their method to Karachi, the capital of southern Sindh province, the place their households reside.
The brothers’ launch was the most recent U.S. transfer towards emptying and shutting down Guantanamo Bay. Former President George W. Bush’s administration set it as much as home extremist suspects after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist assaults on america.
U.S. officers accused the brothers of serving to al-Qaida members with housing and different logistical help. The brothers alleged torture whereas in CIA custody earlier than being transferred to Guantanamo. U.S. army information describe the 2 as offering little intelligence of worth, and that they didn’t recant statements made throughout interrogations on the grounds they had been obtained via bodily abuse.
The U.S. Protection Division introduced their repatriation in an announcement Thursday.
In Islamabad, Amina Masood Janjua, who heads the Protection of Human Rights Pakistan group, mentioned the 2 had been from an impoverished household.
“Their members of the family suffered loads after their arrest and switch to Guantanamo,” she informed the AP.
Janjua has been campaigning for the discharge of suspects arrested in Pakistan after the 9/11 assaults. She is the spouse of Masood Ahmad Janjua, a businessman who went lacking in 2005 within the garrison metropolis of Rawalpindi. Since then, she has been preventing a authorized battle for his launch and that of others.
A detailed household pal of the Rabbanis informed the AP on Friday that Pakistani authorities had formally knowledgeable the household about their imminent launch and return to Pakistan.
The household pal, who’s Pakistani and refused to be recognized by title, fearing for his personal security, mentioned the youthful Rabbani realized portray throughout his detention at Guantanamo, and that he was anticipated to deliver with him a few of these work.
He mentioned Ahmed Rabbani regularly went on starvation strikes and that jail officers fed him via a tube. He mentioned Ahmed remained on dietary dietary supplements as much as his launch.
Guantanamo at its peak in 2003 held about 600 individuals thought-about terrorists by the U.S. Supporters of utilizing the detention facility for suspected terrorists say that holding them prevented assaults. Critics say the army detention and courts subverted human rights and constitutional rights and undermined America’s standing overseas.
Thirty-two detainees stay at Guantanamo Bay, together with 18 eligible for switch if secure third-party nations may be discovered to take them, the Pentagon says. Many are from Yemen, thought-about too plagued with battle and extremist teams and too devoid of providers for freed Yemeni detainees to be despatched there.
9 of the detainees are defendants in slow-moving military-run tribunals. Two others have been convicted.
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Related Press author Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed to this report.
