Guantanamo inmate, '20th Hijacker' of 9/11, repatriated to Saudi Arabia
A Saudi national accused of being the would-be 20th hijacker in the 9/11 attacks has been repatriated to his country after two decades of captivity at Guantanamo Bay, the US Department of Defense said on Monday.
Mohammad Mani Ahmad al-Qahtani, 46, was transferred to his native country after a review board determined in June that he no longer represented a significant threat to US national security.
"The United States appreciates the willingness of Saudi Arabia and other partners to support ongoing U.S. efforts toward a deliberate and thorough process focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing of the Guantanamo Bay facility," the statement said.
According to a Guantanamo detainee profile, al-Qahtani was trained by al-Qaeda and had sought unsuccessful entrance to the US a month before the attack and was later captured by US forces and sent to Guantánamo in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks.
He was exposed to brutal beatings, sleep deprivation, and extended solitary confinement leading to his mental illness, according to reports.
Charges against Qahtani had been dropped more than a decade ago in 2008, but he was left to languish behind the bars.
In all, 38 detainees remain at the infamous detention facility. Of those, 19 are eligible for transfer, 7 are eligible for a Periodic Review Board, 10 are involved in the military commissions' process and two detainees have been convicted in military commissions.
The 19 September 11 hijackers were affiliated with the al-Qaeda group hailing from four countries; fifteen of them were citizens of Saudi Arabia, two were from the United Arab Emirates, one was from Lebanon, and one from Egypt.
None of the hijackers were from Afghanistan, yet the United States imposed a harsh 20 -year long war on the country while maintaining strong political and economic ties with the Saudi Kingdom.
Former US President Barak Obama had promised to shut Guantanamo when he campaigned for office in 2008 and set up the periodic review Board system, a panel composed of several US national security agencies during his tenure, but failed to close the prison during his eight years in office.
This is the second repatriation of Guantanamo detainees during the Biden administration, which has said that he intends to close the facility.
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