“Kiss your mother's forehead and tell her that her son has returned.” These were the emotional instructions given by Prince Muhammad Bin Naif Bin Abdul Aziz, Deputy Minister for Security Affairs, to Mislem Al-Aili, brother of Saudi Guantanamo detainee Abdul Aziz Kudaim Salem Al-Aili, one of three detainees to be returned to the Kingdom on Saturday. “The Prince's call brought smiles back to the house after a seven-year absence,” Mislem said at receiving the news for which the family had long been waiting. “The government has always assured us it would repatriate Saudi detainees at Guantanamo, and now the joy in the house is indescribable.” The now former detainee Abdul Aziz is the youngest of a nine-member family, and Mislem recalled Saturday the moment he first heard of his brother's fate. “Seven years ago he was in Taif and then just disappeared,” Mislem said. “Shortly after, he called from abroad.” Abdul Aziz did not, however, reveal to his family the country in which he was residing. Abdul Aziz arrived back in the Kingdom on Saturday morning with fellow detainees Ahmad Zaid Salem Zuhair and Khaled Saad Muhammad Al-Saif, and the three will be subject to judicial review in the Kingdom before undergoing a rehabilitation program. They represent the 12th group of detainees to be returned to Saudi Arabia, with 121 out of 130 detainees brought home since 2003. Ministry of Interior spokesman Mansour Al-Turki, expressed the Kingdom's satisfaction with the level of cooperation from the US government in repatriating Saudi detainees, and said that efforts to repatriate the nine remaining were under way. The US government has transferred nine detainees during the week to Bermuda, Chad, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.
