Guantanamo's Oldest Prisoner, A Pakistani, Freed After 19 Years
NDTV
Paracha was arrested by US intelligence personnel from Thailand in 2003 on the charge of having links to Al-Qaeda.
The 75-year-old Pakistani man who was the oldest prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility at the US base in Cuba was released and returned to Pakistan on Saturday, the foreign affairs ministry in Islamabad said. Mr. Paracha, who was detained in Guantanamo Bay 🇺🇸 , has been released & reached 🇵🇰 on Saturday. The Foreign Ministry completed an extensive inter-agency process to facilitate repatriation of Mr. Paracha. We are glad that a citizen detained abroad is reunited with his family. https://t.co/VSTOTAbuMP
The ministry claimed that after spending more than 17 years in detention at the US facility in Cuba, Saifullah Paracha was reunited with his family.
According to the Guardian, Paracha had been held since 2003 on suspicion of having links with al-Qaida but was never charged with a crime. He was notified in May 2021 that his release had been approved, having been cleared by the prisoner review board in November 2020.
"As is customary, the notification did not provide detailed reasons for the decision and concluded only that Paracha was "not a continuing threat" to the US, according to Shelby Sullivan-Bennis, who represented him at his hearing at the time," reported the news outlet.
