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Two Pakistani brothers held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay military prison for two decades were released by US officials and returned home on Friday, officials said.
He will be reunited with his family after formal questioning by Pakistani authorities, according to Pakistani security officials and senators.
Pakistan arrested Abdul and Mohammed Rabbani on suspicion of al-Qaeda links in 2002 in Karachi, the country’s largest port city.
The two brothers arrived at the airport in the capital, Islamabad, on Friday. Sen. Pakistan Mushtaq Ahmed Khan, chairman of the human rights committee in the upper house of Pakistan’s Parliament, tweeted that the two brothers had arrived at Islamabad airport.
LISTEN |When Carol Rosenberg, who has covered Guantanamo since 2002, spoke to the CBC in 2021:
Now20:59What will it take to close Guantanamo Bay?
This month marks 20 years since the opening of the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, despite the US president’s repeated promises to close it. We spoke with Ramzi Kassem, a law professor at the City University of New York, who has also defended 14 detainees at Guantanamo; and Carol Rosenberg, military affairs reporter for the New York Times and author of Guantánamo Bay: The Pentagon’s Alcatraz of the Caribbean.
He said they were “imprisoned without sin in Guantanamo Bay for 21 years. No trial, no trial, no charges against them. Congratulations on their release. Thank you Senate of Pakistan,” he wrote on Twitter.
Khan later told The Associated Press that the brothers were sent to Karachi, the capital of southern Sindh province, and live with their families. He said he hopes the men will be reunited with their families.
The release comes months after a 75-year-old Pakistani man, Saifullah Paracha, was released from the Guantanamo Bay detention center.
Amnesty International tweets about Rabbanis, others eligible for release:
(continued) 21 people have been cleared for release but are still incarcerated at Guantanamo
👉 Abdul Rabbani
👉 Mohammed Rabbani
👉 Abd al-Salam al-Hilah
👉 Majid Khan< br>👉 Guleed Hassan Ahmed
👉 Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu
5/8 pic.twitter.com/9t89dHwL7q
Accused of helping members of al-Qaeda
The brothers’ release is the latest US move to vacate and close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. The administration of former president George W. Bush prepared to house suspected extremists after the attacks of September 11, 2001. al-Qaeda in the United States.
US officials have accused the brothers of helping al-Qaeda members with housing and other logistical support. The brothers were accused of torture while in CIA custody before being transferred to Guantanamo. US military records describe the two as providing little intelligence, and did not retract statements made during interrogations because they were obtained through physical abuse.
The US Department of Defense announced the repatriation in a statement the previous day.
On Friday, a close family friend of the two brothers told the AP that Pakistani authorities had officially informed the brothers’ families of their release and return to Pakistan.
A family friend, who is Pakistani and declined to be identified for security reasons, said the younger Rabbani studied painting during his detention at Guantanamo Bay, and he would bring some of those paintings with him.
He said that Ahmed Rabbani was often on hunger strike and that prison officials were feeding him through a tube. He said the man remained on nutritional supplements.
LISTENING | A closer look at the prison at Guantanamo Bay:
Idea53:58The Global War on Terror, Pt 1: Guantanamo and Torture’s Aftermath
The prison at Guantanamo Bay remains open. And while advocates including former prisoners fight for closure, the legacy of prisoners and torturers lives on. This is the first of a three-part series in which IDEAS producer Naheed Mustafa takes a look at the homes built in the War on Terror. *This episode originally aired on December 3, 2021.
Guantanamo at its peak in 2003 held around 600 people considered terrorists by US supporters using the detention facilities for those figures said to prevent attacks.
There will be 40 inmates when President Joe Biden, a Democrat, takes office in 2021. Biden has said he expects to close the facility. The federal government is prohibited by law from sending Guantanamo detainees to US mainland prisons.
Critics say military detentions and trials undermine human rights and constitutional rights and undermine America’s standing abroad.
Thirty-two detainees remain at Guantanamo Bay, including 18 who are eligible for transfer if a stable third-party country can be found, the Pentagon said. Many of them are from Yemen, a country that is widely considered to be plagued by war and extremist groups and also has no services for released Yemeni prisoners sent there.
Nine of the detainees were defendants in a slow-moving military court. The other two have been convicted.
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