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| Arabia |
| Prince Saud Denies Prisoner Swap |
| 2004-07-11 |
| "Nope. Nope. Never happened." Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said the Kingdom would do its best to bring its nationals back from the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba but denied swapping Saudi inmates with Western prisoners in the Kingdom. "We would never swap our nationals... but we use all possible means to bring them back from Guantanamo or any other prison," Prince Saud told a news conference here yesterday. A total of 124 Saudis are among roughly 600 prisoners held during the US-led war in Afghanistan in late 2001 and incarcerated in extreme conditions at Guantanamo Bay. Prince Saud was responding to a question about press reports claiming that the Kingdom swapped Western prisoners with Saudi inmates in the US prison in Cuba. Two Canadian newspapers claimed they had evidence that seven Western prisoners were freed by the Kingdom last year in exchange for five Saudi terror suspects from the American camp in Cuba. The New York Times had first reported last week, quoting unnamed officials, that the United States agreed to exchange five Saudi suspects for the Westerners, five Britons, a Belgian and a Canadian. Prince Saud declined to answer a question whether he had received assurances from the US administration about the release of Saudi prisoners from Guantanamo in the future. "I do not want to comment because I do not want to give false hope to the families of the inmates," he said. |
| Posted by:tipper |