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Saudi Arabia confirmed on Thursday the arrival of a prisoner who was sent back to the Kingdom from the Guantanamo Bay detention center to serve out the remainder of his 13-year sentence.
Ahmed Mohammed al-Darbi is the first detainee to leave the US base in Cuba since President Donald Trump took office. The Pentagon first announced the transfer in a brief statement on Wednesday.
Saudi state security says al-Darbi arrived just before midnight on Wednesday and that his relatives had been notified.
After serving the remainder of his sentence, about nine years, al-Darbi will spend time in a Saudi rehabilitation center for convicted extremists that aims to help them assimilate back into society through frequent visits with relatives, religious counseling with moderate clerics, art therapy and even cash assistance to help them once out.
There have been around 140 detainees transferred from Guantanamo Bay to Saudi Arabia. His transfer brings the number of men still held at Guantanamo to 40.
Read: Guantanamo Bay, the infamous jail Obama could not shut
The agreement to repatriate al-Darbi was made under President Barack Obama, whose administration had hoped to eventually close the detention center. Trump reversed that policy and has vowed to continue using the center.
Al-Darbi pleaded guilty before a military commission at the US base in Cuba in 2014 to charges stemming from an al-Qaida attack on a French oil tanker. His plea deal included extensive testimony against others held at Guantanamo.
His charges included conspiracy, attacking civilian objects, terrorism and aiding the enemy for helping to arrange the 2002 al-Qaida attack on the French tanker MV Limburg. The attack, which killed a Bulgarian crew member, happened after al-Darbi was already in US custody and was cooperating with authorities, according to court documents.
Al-Darbi, 43, was captured at an airport in Azerbaijan in June 2002 and taken to the US base in Bagram, Afghanistan. He has testified to being kept in solitary confinement, strung up from a door in shackles, deprived of sleep and subjected to other forms of abuse as part of his early interrogation.
His lead defense counsel, Ramzi Kassem, said the transfer was the culmination of “16 long and painful years in captivity” by the United States at Guantanamo and in Afghanistan, with his children growing up without him and his own father dying.
In a statement released by Kassem, who was part of a legal team that included two military officers, al-Darbi described what he expected to be an emotional reunion with his family in Saudi Arabia.
“I cannot thank enough my wife and our children for their patience and their love. They waited sixteen years for my return,” he said. “Looking at what lies ahead, I feel a mixture of excitement, disbelief, and fear. I’ve never been a father. I’ve been here at Guantanamo. I’ve never held my son.”
History of torture
Any attempt to send new inmates to Guantanamo would likely run into a plethora of legal challenges.
"Given the history of torture, unlawful detention and complete lack of justice provided there, no new detainees should ever be transferred to Guantanamo," Daphne Eviatar, a director at Amnesty International USA, said in a statement.
Trump's January executive order gave Mattis and the heads of other agencies 90 days to recommend policies on wartime detainees and whether they should be sent to Guantanamo.
US military officials have been openly discussing the fate of Islamic State group detainees, mainly foreign fighters, held by US-backed militias in northern Syria.
Mattis on Monday said the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, who have been fighting IS, had more than 400 prisoners.
The Pentagon chief added that he was "absolutely certain that there is not one thing going on down there (at Guantanamo) that would not be in accordance with" the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war.
As part of his plea, al-Darbi provided evidence against another Saudi Guantanamo detainee — Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who faces the death penalty on charges he masterminded the MV Limburg attack and the 2000 attack against the USS Cole in Yemen that left 17 dead.
Instead of being tried in a US civilian court, Nashiri and other inmates are going through a legal process known as the military commissions, which were drawn up to prosecute Guantanamo captives.
Among those facing trial are several alleged 9/11 co-conspirators, including accused mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
