JEDDAH, 14 March 2004 — Saudi prisoners in Guantanamo are hopeful about their imminent release, an Interior Ministry official said.
Saud Al-Mosaibeh said the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has delivered 580 letters from the 124 detainees to their families in the Kingdom.
“The letters from the detainees revealed they were in high spirits, saying they feel their release is imminent and that it was only a matter of time,” Al-Watan Arabic daily quoted him as saying.
The ICRC also delivered 685 letters from families to the detainees, according to Al-Mosaibeh.
“As a result of pressure from the Saudi government on the United States, a Saudi delegation visited Guantanamo and met with the detainees to check on their conditions,” he said.
Al-Mosaibeh said the Saudi delegation, in coordination with the ICRC, also took pictures of the detainees.
Saudi citizens make up the largest group of detainees suspected of links with the Al-Qaeda network and Taleban in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
The United States says prisoners held in Guantanamo, most of whom were captured in Afghanistan in 2001, are “unlawful combatants” and therefore not entitled to the treatment guaranteed to prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions.
But Al-Mosaibeh said he had no information about any imminent release of Saudi detainees.
