14 Saudis Return Home From Guantanamo

November 10, 2007

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Saudi authorities received a group of 14 Saudis Saturday from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the state-run-news agency reported.

This latest transfer of detainees brings the number of Saudi nationals remaining in Guantanamo to 22, the Saudi Press Agency said. It quoted Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz as saying that those returned will be referred to Saudi courts.

There were no details given about what charges the men may face in court and up until now no one released into Saudi custody has yet been tried, said officials.

U.S. authorities' last transfer of Saudis from Guantanamo was in September when 16 prisoners were returned

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The United States has sent home to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 16 more Saudi men who were long-held prisoners at the detention and interrogation center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The Saudi Press Agency announced the repatriation mission early Thursday, the seventh from Guantánamo to Saudi Arabia in 17 months -- and issued a list identifying all 16 men who had been held for years in remote southeast Cuba.

None of the 16 had been previously charged with crimes at Guantánamo.

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Agence France Presse, the French news agency, reported from Riyadh that the transfer brought to 93 the number of Saudi detainees handed over to the kingdom in a series of repatriation missions negotiated between Washington and the oil-rich Persian Gulf kingdom.

Another 37 Saudis are still held in the prison camps in Cuba, AFP said.

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The men returned ahead of the Ramadan season and just before contractors were closing the single functioning airstrip at the 45-square-mile military base for a repaving operation that would prevent large aircrafts from landing there for a few weeks.

In mid-July, the United States also repatriated 16 Saudis from Guantánamo.