Rights Groups Concerned After Guantanamo Inmate Sent To Algeria

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Human rights groups voiced their concerns after the U.S. Defense Department released two Guantanamo inmates, sending one detainee to Algeria against his will.

Voicing their opposition, the rights groups said that Abdul Aziz Naji, before being arrested in Pakistan in 2002, had run away from Algeria amid fears that he could face persecution from terrorist groups and the government.

He will be the first involuntary transfer from prison under the Obama government.

The U.S. government had earlier said that Naji was a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group in Pakistan, however, the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York said he had been cleared of any links to terrorism long ago. “We are deeply concerned that he will disappear into secret detention and face the threat of persecution by terrorist groups in Algeria,” said the centre, which has represented many Guantanamo detainees.

Defending their move, the Pentagon said that they had coordinated his repatriation with the Algerian government and received the latter’s assurances that they would not harm the detainees returned to them.

Syria’s Abd-al-Nisr Mohammed Khantumani is the second freed man and he would be transferred to the West African Island of Cape Verde for resettlement. He was detained when he was only 17-year-old in 2002.

The Center for Constitutional Rights still considers him a dangerous criminal and supported Pentagon’s decision of not sending him back to Syria. He will be the first Guantanamo prisoner to be resettled on Cape Verde.

With the fresh transfers, the number of inmates at Guantanamo reduced to 178. It may be recalled that soon after President Barack Obama assumed office in January last year, he promised to shut down the detention centre within a year of his inauguration.


(2010-07-20/AHN)