Guantanamo Bay Prisoner Who Wrote Memoir Released to Mauritania

Washington, 17 Muharram 1438/18 October 2016 (MINA) – The United States has released a detainee from its prison at Guantanamo Bay to Mauritania, leaving 60 prisoners at the Cuban facility, the Pentagon said Monday, DPA reported.

The prisoner, Mohamedou Ould Slahi, was held for 14 years without charge or trial.

Slahi’s release comes after long legal battles and an outpouring of support, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a statement.

Slahi, 45, wrote a diary about life in Guantanamo Bay that was released in January 2015. The memoir describes an odyssey that began in 2001, when Mauritanian authorities detained him at the behest of the US government after he voluntarily went in for questioning.

The US transferred him to prisons in Jordan and Afghanistan before Guantanamo, where he was brutally tortured, according to the ACLU statement.

“I feel grateful and indebted to the people who have stood by me,” Slahi said in the statement.

“I have come to learn that goodness is transnational, transcultural, and trans-ethnic. I’m thrilled to reunite with my family.”

The Pentagon said Slahi was released after reviews conducted by a task force made up of six US security agencies, the US Department of Defence said in a statement. (T/R07/R01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)