Leading Gitmo Attorneys Applaud Repatriation of Two Saudi Nationals

December 16, 2013, New York – Today, in response to the transfer of Saad Muhammad Husayn Qahtani and Hamood Abdulla Hamood from Guantánamo to Saudi Arabia over the weekend, the Center for Constitutional Rights issued the following statement:

We commend the Obama administration for these two transfers to Saudi Arabia. Both men had been cleared for release for years and neither was charged with a crime during the eleven years each spent in detention.
 
The president authorized these transfers under existing transfer restrictions imposed by Congress. While these transfers prove the president had the power to move men out of Guantanamo despite these restrictions, we expect that language in the compromise version of this year’s defense funding bill (NDAA) will expedite this process by easing the restrictions.
 
Half of the remaining 160 men have been approved for release for years, and Yemenis comprise the majority of these cleared men. Like Hamood, many Yemeni detainees have significant family ties to Saudi Arabia and could be transferred there. But there can be no excuse for failing to send home to Yemen men cleared for release years ago. The men should be transferred on a case-by-case basis, rather than viewing them as a block. The president announced in May that he would lift his self-imposed ban on transfers to Yemen. Seven months later, not a single Yemeni has been released. If the president is to close this prison before the end of his second term, he must resume the repatriation of Yemenis as soon as possible.
 
CCR has led the legal battle over Guantanamo for nearly 12 years – representing clients in two Supreme Court cases and organizing and coordinating hundreds of pro bono lawyers across the country to represent the men at Guantanamo, ensuring that nearly all have the option of legal representation. Among other Guantánamo cases, the Center represents the families of men who died at Guantánamo, and men who have been released and are seeking justice in international courts.

The Center for Constitutional Rights works with communities under threat to fight for justice and liberation through litigation, advocacy, and strategic communications. Since 1966, the Center for Constitutional Rights has taken on oppressive systems of power, including structural racism, gender oppression, economic inequity, and governmental overreach. Learn more at ccrjustice.org.

 

Last modified 

December 31, 2013