US Transfers 15 Guantánamo Detainees as Rights Groups Push for Full Closure

August 16, 2016
Common Dreams

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Among those released is Zahir Hamdoun, a Yemeni citizen held at Guantánamo without charge since 2002, when he was 22 years old. The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which represents Hamdoun, said Monday that until he was cleared for release in January by the Periodic Review Board (PRB), Hamdoun had been slated for indefinite detention.

Because the U.S. has a policy forbidding the repatriation of Yemeni citizens, Hamdoun has been made into a refugee, the CCR said.

"During a phone call before his release, Mr. Hamdoun said he felt happy and hopeful—a remarkable sentiment from a man who has lived through hell in Guantánamo and lost over 14 years of his life," said CCR senior staff attorney Pardiss Kebriaei.

The U.S. "must at least help ensure that Mr. Hamdoun can see his family—in particular his mother—without delay after his transfer, after depriving him of his loved ones for all these years. Even that much is not clear for the men just transferred," Kebriaei added. "Release must mean not only physical transfer from Guantánamo, but the restoration of these men's basic freedoms." ...

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Last modified 

August 17, 2016