The Security Spokesman of the Ministry of Interior announced here on Saturday that nine Yemeni detainees have arrived in the Kingdom. These nine inmates have been transferred from Guantanamo Bay. The Kingdom accepted the Yemeni detainees after Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman approved the request of Yemeni President Abdurabbu Mansur Hadi to take in nine Yemeni detainees from Guantanamo prison, according to Saudi Press Agency (SPA). The Pentagon on Saturday announced the transfer of nine Yemeni inmates from Guantanamo Bay to Saudi Arabia, bringing the remaining population at the controversial military prison down to 80. The inmates' relatives, who are residents in the Kingdom, had earlier appealed that they be hosted in the Kingdom due to the situation Yemen is going through. The detainees arrived in the Kingdom at 8.00 p.m. Saturday, the Security Spokesman said. The spokesman added: "Their (inmates) relatives have been contacted and arrangements to facilitate meeting them have been made. However, they will be subject to the regulations in force in the Kingdom that include that they benefit from the advice and care program." "The United States is grateful to the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its humanitarian gesture and willingness to support ongoing US efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility," the Pentagon said in a statement. Most of the men had been cleared for release years ago, but faced delays owing in part to their home country descending into civil war, meaning they could not be repatriated. The United States has in recent months accelerated the rate at which detainees who have been approved for transfer are released from the facility, which President Barack Obama wants to close before his term ends at the end of the year. Saturday's release marks the largest transfer since 10 Yemenis were sent to Oman in January. The nine inmates are: Ahmed Umar Abdullah Al-Hikimi, Abdul Rahman Mohammed Saleh Nasir, Ali Yahya Mahdi Al-Raimi, Tariq Ali Abdullah Ahmed Ba Odah, Muhammed Abdullah Muhammed Al-Hamiri, Ahmed Yaslam Said Kuman, Abd Al Rahman Al-Qyati, Mansour Muhammed Ali Al-Qatta, and Mashur Abdullah Muqbil Ahmed Al-Sabri. The most prominent of the latest transfers was Tariq Ba Odah, a 37-year-old Yemeni whom the military had been force-feeding daily since he went on a hunger strike in 2007 and had been reported to have lost half his body weight. His case was source of frequent legal wrangling between the US Department of Justice and his lawyers, who had unsuccessfully sought his release on humanitarian and medical grounds. Of the 80 remaining inmates, 26 have been approved for transfer. Obama wants to send the rest, deemed to be the most dangerous, for incarceration in the United States but Republican lawmakers have steadfastly resisted any such move. Guantanamo is a US naval base carved out of a remote chunk of land on the tip of southeastern Cuba. In all, it has housed about 780 inmates over the years. Republican presidential candidates have vowed that, if elected, they would send more terror suspects to Guantanamo instead of closing it. — With input from agencies
