Amnesty International welcomed the transfer but said Guantanamo would remain a ‘glaring, longstanding stain’ on human rights in the US.
The United States has transferred 11 Yemeni detainees from its notorious Guantanamo Bay detention centre to Oman after holding them for more than two decades without charge as part of Washington’s so-called “war on terror”.
“The United States appreciates the willingness of the government of Oman and other partners to support ongoing US efforts focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility,” the US Department of Defense said in a statement on Monday evening.
The US-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) said that among the 11 detainees transferred to Oman this week, was Sharqawi al-Hajj, who had undergone repeated hunger strikes and hospitalisations at Guantanamo to protest his 21 years in prison, which came after two years of detention and torture by the CIA.
“Our thoughts are with Mr Al Hajj as he transitions to the free world after almost 23 years in captivity. His release is hopeful for him and for us,” said Pardiss Kebriaei, a lawyer at CCR who represents al-Hajj.
Just 15 detainees now remain at Guantanamo, down from a peak of almost 800 in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks by al-Qaeda when then-US President George W Bush set up the Guantanamo prison camp to hold suspects indefinitely and without charge and disallowing legal challenges to their detention.
Hundreds of mostly Muslim men were seized from dozens of countries as part of the US’s so-called “war on terror”, which also involved the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and covert military operations elsewhere around the world.
Conditions at Guantanamo Bay and the treatment of detainees have long prompted outcries from human rights groups and United Nations experts who have condemned the prison as a site of “unparalleled notoriety”.
Welcoming the release of the 11, Amnesty International said the “military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay is a glaring, longstanding stain on the human rights record of the United States”.
In the past month, US authorities have released several prisoners from Guantanamo, including Tunisian national Ridah bin Saleh al-Yazidi who had been held at the prison since it opened in 2002 without ever being charged. Also released was Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu who was arrested in Kenya in 2007, and two Malaysian men who had been held for 18 years without charge.
Successive US administrations had been called on to close Guantanamo or, at least, release all those detainees never charged with a crime. Outgoing President Joe Biden had pledged before his election in 2020 to try to shut down Guantanamo, but it remains in operation just weeks before he leaves office.
Biden administration officials said they were working on identifying suitable countries willing to take detainees from Guantanamo who were never charged with a crime.
CCR said that of the 15 men who remain at Guantanamo, six are uncharged and three of those have been cleared for transfer from the US.
The Defense Department said that the nine other detainees include two who have been convicted and sentenced, and seven who have been charged in relation to the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole naval ship as well as the September 11, 2001 attacks and the 2002 bombings on the resort island of Bali.
