U.S. releases three Yemeni detainees, Yemen to receive dozens of Guantanamo prisoners [Archives:2006/936/Front Page]
Amel Ariqi
SANA'A, April 8 ) After being held for more than two years, the Washington Post reported that three Yemeni nationals have been released without charge by U.S. authorities.
In previous statements and a report released in London Wednesday, April 5, Amnesty International cited the three detainees' cases as a window on what it believes is part of a covert CIA system designed to hide prisoners. Amnesty officials told the Post that they could not accurately identify where the prisoners had been held, but their accounts indicated they had been held in facilities in Afghanistan, Djibouti and Eastern Europe.
Mohammed Bashmilah, 38, and Salah Ali Qaru, 29 – both living in Indonesia when they were arrested in 2003 – were released last week after a Yemeni judge convicted them of forging personal travel documents and sentenced them to time served in U.S. facilities. Both men claimed they were tortured in a Jordanian prison before being transferred into U.S. custody.
Mohammed Al-Assad, 43, was arrested in December 2003 in his longtime home of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and ended up in what Amnesty officials believe was a CIA “black site” prison. He was released March 14 from a Yemeni prison.
The Post reported from Anne FitzGerald, Amnesty's senior research policy advisor, that the men never have been given information about why they were arrested or why they were being held secretly.
According to the Post, the men were not allowed contact with the Red Cross International Committee and did not have access to lawyers. Their families thought they had disappeared.
Mohammed Al-Basha, press officer for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington, said Tuesday that he was unable to confirm the specific cases identified by Amnesty. In general, Al-Basha said, “The Yemeni government will not release any convicts unless they are found to be . . . not or indirectly involved with a terrorist organization.” A CIA spokeswoman refused to comment on the subject, according to the Post.
In other news, Yemen announced that it will receive dozens of Yemenis currently imprisoned at the Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba. September 26 Net reported that the agreement came after a Yemeni team met the Guantanamo prisoners three months ago. A security source stated that the team was able to identify and confirm their identities.
According to the report, Yemen has received a list of names including 106 individuals U.S. authorities claim are Yemenis arrested since Sept. 11, 2001, whereas involved human rights organizations estimate 150 Yemeni Guantanamo detainees.
Both Amnesty and the National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedoms (HOOD) insisted to Yemeni authorities that detainees must not be returned to more abuse by rearresting them and putting them in Yemeni prisons. HOOD stated that many Yemenis returned from Guantanamo in 2004 and detained in prison without charge or trial recently have been released without trial.
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