A Saudi engineer who was detained more than 20 years ago as a potential suspect in the September 11, 2001 Al-Qaeda attacks was freed from the Guantanamo military jail on Wednesday, according to the United States. He was never charged, however.
In March 2002, Ghassan Al Sharbi, 48, and an Al-Qaeda ally were apprehended in Faisalabad, Pakistan. He was chosen as a target because he had gone to flight school with two of the Al-Qaeda hijackers in the 9/11 plot and had studied aeronautics at an Arizona institution.
Charges against Sharbi and other individuals had been considered by the US military, but they were withdrawn in 2008.
Although he was never charged and was never given permission to be released, he was still being held as an enemy prisoner in the military prison at the US Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
However, the Pentagon’s Periodic Review Board, which adjudicates requests for Guantanamo release, decided in February 2022 that the Jeddah, Saudi Arabian native could be released.
It claimed that despite being regarded as a hostile prisoner years earlier, he had no leadership or facilitator positions within Al-Qaeda and was cooperative while being held.
He had unnamed “physical and mental health problems,” according to the report.
In accordance with the 2022 decision, he could enroll in Saudi Arabia’s venerable rehabilitation program for extreme jihadists, which aims to gradually alter their viewpoint while guaranteeing that they will be closely watched as they reintegrate into society.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the review board stated that it had advised Sharbi’s transfer to Saudi Arabia be “subject to the implementation of a comprehensive set of security measures, including monitoring, travel restrictions, and ongoing information sharing.”
After Sharbi’s release, only 31 prisoners are still being held at Guantánamo, down from a high of almost 800.
The Pentagon and State Department are looking for nations to accept 17 of them who are transferable.
Nine people are charged with crimes by military commissions, and two of them have been found guilty by such commissions. Another three people are qualified for a Periodic Review Board review.
