Pakistan: Guantanamo’s oldest prisoner returns home after release
ISLAMABAD: The foreign ministry in Islamabad announced on Saturday that a 74-year-old Pakistani man who was the oldest prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility had been freed and sent back to his country.
After spending more than 17 years in detention at a US base in Cuba, Saifullah Paracha was reunited with his family, the ministry claimed.
Despite being detained since 2003 on suspicion of having ties to Al-Qaeda, Paracha was never charged with a crime. He learned that his release had been authorised in May of last year. In November 2020, the prisoner review board cleared him and two other men.
According to Shelby Sullivan-Bennis, who represented Paracha at the time of his hearing, the notification, as is normal, did not provide specific justification for the choice and just stated that Paracha is “not a continuing threat” to the United States.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Pakistan said that a protracted interagency process to permit Paracha’s return had been completed.
The ministry stated, “We are pleased that a Pakistani national jailed abroad has finally been reunited with his family.
Paracha was a successful businessman in Pakistan who resided in the United States and had property in New York City. Authorities claimed he was an Al-Qaeda “facilitator” who used a financial transaction to assist two of the plotters on September 11th.
He has insisted that he was unaware that they belonged to Al-Qaeda and has denied any connection to terrorism.
Paracha was taken prisoner by the US in Thailand in 2003, and he has been detained there since September 2004. Washington has claimed for a long time that the international norms of war allow it to keep people without trial for an endless period of time.
Paracha made his eighth appearance before the review board in November 2020. The review board was set up by President Barack Obama to try to stop the release of detainees who officials believed might engage in anti-US hostilities after being released from Guantanamo. Paracha has a number of health issues, including diabetes and a heart condition.
When President Joe Biden was elected, Paracha’s poor health, and developments in a legal matter involving his son, Uzair Paracha, his attorney, Sullivan-Bennis, said she were more hopeful about his prospects.
Based in part on testimony from the same witnesses detained at Guantanamo that the US used to support keeping the father, the son was found guilty of supporting terrorism in federal court in New York in 2005. The conviction was upheld on appeal.
The younger Paracha was released and sent back to Pakistan in March 2020 after a court disregarded those witness testimony and the US government decided against requesting a new trial.
