Nine Guantanamo detainees — all from Yemen —were transferred to Saudi Arabia on Saturday, lowering the remaining inmate population at the U.S. military detention facility in Cuba to 80, the U.S. Defense Department said in a statement.
Although the nine have family ties to Saudi Arabia, it was the first time the royal kingdom agreed to take in non-citizens from Guantanamo.
None of the detainees had been charged but they could not be released earlier because of violence and political instability in Yemen, which borders Saudi Arabia. Eight were cleared for release from Gitmo since at least 2010, and one was approved for release by a review board last year.
The freed detainees included hunger striker, Tariq Ba Odah, 38, who gained prominence by asking a federal judge to release him after his weight fell to 74 pounds despite daily U.S. Navy medical tube feedings, the Miami Herald reports.
Another, 33-year-old Ali al Raimi, arrived in Guantanamo as a teenager “and was cleared for transfer over 10 years ago,” according to his lawyer, Erin Thomas, the Herald reports. She said he “longs to finally begin an adult life as a free man” — to marry and start a family of his own.
In a reversal of past policy, Saudi Arabia agreed to take the non-citizens into a rehabilitation program it set up to help transition Saudi jihadists back into society.
In its statement, the Defense Department said the U.S. is "grateful to the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its humanitarian gesture and willingness to support ongoing U.S. efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility."
"The United States coordinated with government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to ensure these transfers took place consistent with appropriate security and humane treatment measures," the statement said.
The agreement, first raised more than two years ago with Riyadh, was finalized in February after months of negotiations that included talks between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the defense minister and son of Saudi King Salman, and Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, The New York Times reports.
The release comes days before President Obama heads to Saudi Arabia this week on a two-day visit for defense talks.
The nine were transferred to Saudi Arabia aboard a U.S. Air Force cargo plane, a sign of their lesser status compared to Saudi citizens, who have been brought back on Saudi royal or commercial flights.
When Obama took office in 2009 there were 242 detainees at the facility, which was set up under President George W. Bush almost 14 years ago to take in prisoners captured during the Afghan war.
