 MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) - Three Bahrainis, arrested four years ago in the war on terror, headed home on Friday after being released from the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Bahraini officials said. The release comes after intensive efforts by the king of Bahrain, "who has given this case special priority," Information Minister Mohammed Abdulghaffar told the official Bahrain News Agency.
The minister said the three would appear before the prosecutor-general "to take the necessary measures followed in such cases." But a senior Bahraini government official said the released men would not stand trial, the Emirates-based Khaleej Times newspaper said.
The three were arrested four years ago by Pakistani authorities and handed over to U.S. forces during the 2001 war in Afghanistan, lawmaker Mohammed Khaled said. "They were only distributing humanitarian aid among Afghani refugees, but some Pakistanis sold them to U.S. forces claiming that they are al-Qaida members," Khaled told The Associated Press.
| Just distributing alms and arms to the widows of Afghanistan. Why on earth would anyone bother them? |
Khaled said there are three other Bahrainis being held at Guantanamo and that the Bahraini Foreign Ministry was negotiating their release. "Most of the detainees were interrogated and the three remaining were subjected to severe torture over the past four years," Khaled said.
| Chapter 18 in the manual. |
One of those named by Khaled, Juma'a Mohammed al-Dossary, 32, has allegedly tried twice to commit suicide in Guantanamo.
| I suppose we have to stop them from doing so, at leat til we send them home. |
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