2 Pakistani Brothers Home After Release From Guantanamo

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Officials said two Pakistani brothers held by the US at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility for two decades were released and returned home on Friday to be reunited with their families.

In 2002, Pakistan arrested Abdul and Mohammed Rabbani in Karachi, the country’s southern port and largest city, on suspicion of having ties to al-Qaida. The same year, on a tip from the CIA, Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence apprehended Ramzi Binalshibh, a top al-Qaida leader.

The Rabbanis’ release comes months after the release of a 75-year-old Pakistani named Saifullah Paracha from Guantanamo.

Later that day, the Foreign Ministry congratulated the brothers on their release.

“We are pleased that these Pakistani nationals have finally been reunited with their families,” said the ministry, adding that it had “coordinated an extensive inter-agency process to facilitate repatriation” of the two brothers.

Earlier in the day, Pakistani lawmaker Mushtaq Ahmed Khan, chairman of Pakistan’s upper house’s human rights committee, tweeted that the Rabbanis had arrived at the Islamabad airport.

The Pakistani Brother Had No Trial Or Court Proceedings

“There was no trial, no court proceedings, and no charges were filed against them. Congratulations on their successful release. “Thank you, Senate of Pakistan,” Khan wrote on Twitter.

The brothers were on their way to Karachi, the capital of southern Sindh province, where their families live, Khan.

The brothers’ release was the latest step by the United States toward emptying and closing Guantanamo Bay. Following September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, former President George W. Bush’s administration established it to house extremist suspects.

US officials accused the brothers of providing al-Qaida members housing and other logistical support. The brothers claimed they were tortured while in CIA custody before being transferred to Guantanamo. According to US military records, the two provided little useful intelligence and refused to recant statements made during interrogations because they were obtained through physical abuse.

Amina Masood Janjua, head of the Defense of Human Rights Pakistan group in Islamabad, said the two came from poor families.

“Their family suffered greatly due to their arrest and transfer to Guantanamo,” she said.

Janjua has been advocating for the release of 9/11 suspects detained in Pakistan. She is the wife of Masood Ahmad Janjua, a businessman who went missing in Rawalpindi in 2005. Since then, she has been fighting for his and others’ release in court.

According to a close family friend of the Rabbanis, Pakistani authorities formally informed the family of their imminent release and return to Pakistan on Friday.

In a statement issued Thursday, the US Defense Department announced their repatriation.

The Pakistani family friend, who declined to be identified by name out of fear for his safety, said the younger Rabbani learned to paint while detained at Guantanamo and was expected to bring some of those paintings with him.

He claimed Ahmed Rabbani frequently went on hunger strikes and was fed through a tube by prison officials. He stated that Ahmed was still taking nutritional supplements at the time of his release.

Guantanamo held approximately 600 people considered terrorists by the United States at its peak in 2003. Supporters of the detention facility for suspected terrorists argue that keeping them there prevents attacks. Critics claim that the military detention and courts violated human and constitutional rights, undermining America’s international standing.

According to the Pentagon, 32 detainees remain at Guantanamo Bay, with 18 eligible for transfer if stable third-party countries can accept them. Many are from Yemen, which is considered too ravaged by war and extremist groups and lacking in services, for freed Yemeni detainees to be sent there.

Nine of the detainees are defendants in military tribunals that move slowly. Two more people have been convicted.

SOURCE – (AP)