The Pentagon announced Saturday that Muhammed Murdi Issa al Zahrani had been released on Friday. Zahrani had been held in the island prison since 2002 and was originally arrested as a suspected official with al Qaeda.
In a 2008 assessment, the Department of Defense’s Joint Task Force Guantanamo called Mohammed Zahrani “an admitted member of al-Qaida who swore bayat (oath of allegiance) to Usama Bin Laden (UBL).”
It went on to claim that Mohammed Zahrani had “numerous high-level members of the al-Qaida network,” and that he “admitted his involvement in planning the assassination of Northern Alliance General Ahmad Shah Masoud.” He was also assessed as having “received extensive militant training including the use of explosives.”
“[Mohammed Zahrani] has indicated his intention to rejoin the fight if released,” the report concluded.
However, in the announcement that Mohammed Zahrani had been released, the DoD wrote the “Detention of Al-Zahrani does not remain necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the security of the United States.”
Mohammed Zahrani was one of five Saudi prisoners who filed a habeas corpus petition in 2005 challenging their indefinite detention. However, a year later, The Military Commissions Act of 2006 took away Guantanamo detainees’ access to the civil justice system, so the petition was stayed.
Zahrani flew back to his homeland of Saudi Arabia, where 15 of the 19 hijackers implicated in the 9/11 attacks hailed from. He is expected to go into a “terrorist rehabilitation program.”
The DoD said the U.S. “is grateful to the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its willingness to support ongoing U.S. efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.”
Zahrani followed the releases of five other Guantanamo inmates who were sent back to two different countries in Eastern Europe. Hashim Bin Ali Bin Amor Sliti and Husayn Salim Muhammad Al-Mutari Yafai were flown to Slovakia while Salah Mohammed Salih Al-Dhabi, Abdel Ghaib Ahmad Hakim, and Abdul Khaled Al-Baydani were sent to Georgia.
According to a 2008 assessment, Ahmad Hakim was “a member of al-Qaeda who reportedly accompanied Osama Bin Laden throughout Afghanistan.”
However, Ahmad Hakim was “cleared for release unanimously by all relevant government agencies [while] his transfer was delayed for years as the U.S. inexplicably opposed his release in court,” according to the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represented him.
“The U.S. finally transferred him on the eve of new litigation by the Center for Constitutional Rights challenging his continued indefinite detention based on or because of his Yemeni citizenship,” they said in a statement. “Such arbitrary detention violates U.S. and international law, including the Geneva Conventions, which the U.S. is obligated to uphold.”
Like Ahmad Hakim, 54 other Yemeni prisoners have been cleared for release but have yet to be transferred because of instability in Yemen.
“As we welcome Mr. [Ahmad Hakim] Alhag’s resettlement, we are reminded that the remaining Yemeni men should be sent home or resettled without further delay,” said CCR Senior Attorney, Wells Dixon.
