Gitmo prisoners begin new lives in Uruguay

(MENAFN- Arab News) MONTEVIDEO Uruguay: Six men who were locked away for more than 12 years on the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay spent Monday in the seclusion of a military hospital in Uruguay's capital speaking to family by phone getting medical check-ups and preparing for a gradual introduction to their new lives in this South American country.

All but one of the former prisoners milled about a suite of rooms behind the marble columns of the Central Hospital of the Armed Forces said Michael Mone a lawyer who was with them. Abu Wa'el Dhiab a Syrian thin and pale after a prolonged hunger strike at Guantanamo was apparently too weak to spend much time out of bed.

'The other men are all up on their feet. They have big smiles on their faces and they are very happy to be in Uruguay after 12 plus years of incarceration' said Mone a Boston-based lawyer for one of the men Ali Hussein Al-Shaban also from Syria.

Mone accustomed to his client being shackled and strictly monitored during meetings in Guantanamo said it was an emotional experience to see Al-Shaban experiencing freedom for the first time in years. Al-Shaban spoke by phone with his parents who are in a refugee camp in a country Mone declined to identify fleeing the turmoil of their homeland.

'He's relaxed he's not flinching every time there's a knock on the door or the close of a gate' the lawyer said.

'He just seems so much more alive than when I used to see him in Guantanamo.'

The four Syrians one Palestinian and a Tunisian arrived in Uruguay over the weekend as refugees the first prisoners from the US base in Cuba to be sent to South America.