US transfers five Guantanamo prisoners to UAE: Pentagon

Date

11/16/2015 8:35:11 PM

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times)

Five men who have been held for more than 13 years at the US base at Guantanamo Bay Cuba have been released and sent to the United Arab Emirates the Pentagon said Sunday.

The five Yemeni men were accepted for resettlement in the Gulf nation after US authorities determined they no longer posed a threat the Defence Department said in a statement. Their release brings the Guantanamo prison population to 107.

The released men who arrived in the UAE on Saturday were identified as Ali Ahmad Muhammad Al Razihi Khalid Abd Al Jabbar Muhammad Uthman Al Qadasi Adil Said Al Hajj Ubayd Al Busays Sulayman Awad Bin Uqayl Al Nahdi and Fahmi Salem Said Al Asani.

None of the men had been charged with a crime but had been detained as enemy combatants. They could not be sent to their homeland because the US considers Yemen too unstable to accept prisoners from Guantanamo. These are the first prisoners accepted by the UAE for resettlement.

President Barack Obama has reduced the number of prisoners by more than half since he took office. He had sought to close the detention center but faced opposition to Congress. The administration is now seeking to move detainees to the United States amid intense opposition.

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