The United States has extradited a man accused of involvement in the 9/11 attacks to Saudi Arabia.
Following media reports that Saudi Arabia was involved in the 9/11 attacks, the US Department of Defense announced that it had returned a prisoner accused of taking part in the operation to Riyadh.
The United States on Monday released and transferred to Saudi Arabia “Mohammed al-Qahtani”, a Saudi prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, who was arrested for trying to take part in the 9/11 attacks.
“On February 4, 2021, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced to Congress that he intended to extradite Mohammed al-Qahtani to Saudi Arabia,” the Pentagon said in a statement today (Tuesday), according to France 24. Returned. “We, in cooperation with our Saudi partners, met the conditions required for the transfer operation.”
“The United States recognizes the willingness of Saudi Arabia and other partners to support the United States’ continued efforts to reduce the number of detainees in the form of a deliberate operation and, ultimately, the closure of Guantanamo Bay,” the statement said.
France 24 added that al-Qahtani’s transfer came after the Guantanamo Bay review committee ruled that his continued detention was no longer necessary to protect the United States from “a dangerous threat”. The Saudi prisoner was released after the United States had previously dubbed him the “twentieth kidnapper” who was said to be involved in the 9/11 attacks in 2021.
According to the report, the review committee eventually concluded that Mohammad al-Qahtani could be transferred, and recommended that he participate in a program called “rehabilitation” at the former Takfiri terrorist center in Saudi Arabia. The committee said it considered the “poor mental condition of the prisoner”, “the protection of prisoners he may enjoy” and the “quality” of his treatment in Saudi Arabia.
According to France 24, al-Qahtani was one of the first detainees to be transferred to Guantanamo Bay in January 2002. The tortures against him were recorded and he was kept in solitary confinement for a long time.
