US: Sixteen of an estimated 128 Saudi Arabian terrorism suspects at Guantánamo Bay will be released to their government this week in the largest transfer of detainees in a year, a Saudi official announced yesterday.
The decision to release the 16 suggests the US state department has made progress in getting foreign governments to take responsibility for their detained nationals, enabling it to reduce numbers at Guantánamo.
The decision to release the prisoners was announced in Washington by visiting Saudi foreign minister Saud al-Faisal, who said the men would be jailed upon arrival while a judicial review considered whether criminal charges were in order.
The transfer would bring to more than 280 the number of Guantánamo captives sent off the island since the first of at least 759 arrived in January 2002.
Saudis account for the second-largest national group among the "enemy combatants" after Afghans, who number more than 200 and are also gradually being repatriated to their homeland under negotiated conditions.
Many of the 19 hijackers who carried out the September 11th terror attacks against the US were Saudi citizens; most were in conflict with the kingdom's leadership.
This has raised concerns among human rights monitors that detainees transferred back to Saudi Arabia could face abuse once back in the hands of their government.
"Human Rights Watch has been and remains seriously concerned about the US government's insistence on using diplomatic assurances to paper over its responsibility not to send people where they will face a substantial likelihood of torture," said Katherine Newell Bierman, counterterrorism counsel for the rights agency in Washington.
In a related development, Pakistani interior minister Aftab Sherpao said on Tuesday that US officials had informed Islamabad that eight Pakistanis also are set for release soon.
Authorities here have refused to confirm any transfer.