US Transfers Five Guantanamo Detainees to UAE

Local Editor

The United States transferred five detainees from Guantanamo Bay to the United Arab Emirates, the Pentagon said Sunday, another step in a long-delayed plan to close the controversial military prison.

The move means that 107 detainees remain at Guantanamo Bay, the Pentagon said in a statement, adding that it was "grateful to the government of the United Arab Emirates for its willingness to support ongoing US efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility."

The men were "lower-level" Yemeni detainees and each had been held for nearly 14 years without charge, The New York Times said.

The UAE had previously taken in just one former Guantanamo detainee - a citizen of its own -in 2008, the newspaper said.

The Pentagon named the five as: Ali Ahmad Mohammed al-Razihi, Khalid Abd-al-Jabbar Mohammed Uthman al-Qadasi, Adil Said al-Hajj Ubayd al-Busays, Sulayman Awad Bin Uqayl al-Nahdi and Fahmi Salem Said al-Asani.

Inmates were called "enemy combatants" and denied standard legal rights, meaning many were held for years without charge or trial.

The Guantanamo prison costs the US taxpayer around $400-450 million annually, according to estimates.

"The United States coordinated with the government of the United Arab Emirates to ensure these transfers took place consistent with appropriate security and humane treatment measures," the Pentagon claimed, saying the five had been cleared for transfer after thorough security reviews.

The latest transfers come with the Pentagon poised to release a much-anticipated report on shutting down Guantanamo Bay, even as Congress battles to block the transfer of the military prison inmates from eastern Cuba to US soil.
President Barack Obama made closing Guantanamo a key election pledge, but lawmakers have repeatedly thwarted him.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team