Gitmo Prisoner, Hunger-Striking for Nine Years, Cleared for Release

A U.S. government review board said Friday that Abdul Rahman Shalabi, a prisoner who has been on a nine-year hunger strike at the U.S. base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has been cleared to return to his native Saudi Arabia.

Shalabi, one of the first prisoners brought to Guantánamo in January 2002, was never charged with a crime. The government said he had been a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden and had links to al Qaeda’s external operations chief, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is facing trial by military commission at Guantánamo.

The Periodic Review Board—which was established by the Obama administration in 2011 as part of the effort to close the prison at Guantánamo—said in a statement (pdf) published on its website that Shalabi can be released to take part in a Saudi government rehabilitation program for militants and would be subject to monitoring afterward.

“The Board acknowledges the detainee’s past terrorist-related activities and connections,” the final determination statement (pdf) reads. However, it continues, “in light of the factors and conditions of the transfer…the risk the detainee presents can be adequately mitigated. The detainee does not appear to be in contact with any extremists and his family has no known ties to extremism.”

Shalabi has been on hunger strike since 2005, with his lawyer telling (pdf) the review board in April “he has exercised a peaceful means of protest by refusing to consume food and has largely cooperated with the enteral feedings he has been provided on a daily basis over the last nine years.”

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