RIYADH, 30 June — Saudi Arabia has dispatched a team of experts to inspect the conditions of over 100 of its nationals detained in the US base in Cuba after receiving a go-ahead from Washington. The team, composed of officials from the interior and foreign ministries, left the Kingdom on Friday, Al-Watan Arabic daily reported yesterday quoting an Interior Ministry source.
The source declined to say whether the team would press for the repatriation of the detainees, adding that this might happen only after the team reports back to Riyadh.
More than 560 suspected Taleban and Al-Qaeda fighters, nationals of over 30 countries, are being held in the Guantanamo base, where they were transferred from Afghanistan and Pakistan on suspicion of links with terrorist organizations.
Interior Minister Prince Naif said in January that there were more than 100 Saudis detained in Guantanamo. He requested their repatriation to interrogate them in the Kingdom. He later suggested that Riyadh would, if allowed, send a commission to Guantanamo to interrogate them there.
US authorities have refused to give the Guantanamo detainees prisoner-of-war status, as set out under the Geneva Conventions, and are reserving the right to try them before secret US military tribunals that have the power to impose the death penalty. So far, none of them have been charged with any crime.
Deputy Interior Minister Prince Ahmad complained earlier this month that the US had yet to grant the Kingdom direct access to the inmates. He said he had recently met representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Kingdom to inquire about Saudi prisoners in Guantanamo.
