A Pakistani Man Suspected Of Links To al-Qaeda Has Been Released After 19 Years

A Pakistani man suspected of links to al-Qaeda has been released after 19 years in US custody and returned to his home country, the US  Department of Defense said on Saturday. Saifullah Paracha, 75, spent 18 years in the notorious Guantanamo prison. 

Center run by the US at its military base on the island of Cuba and a year earlier at the  US military prison in Bagram, Afghanistan, after he was arrested in Thailand in 2003 by a Military Commission like some of the other Guantánamo Bay detainees.

Paracha was one of several people captured in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere following the September 11, 2001 al-Qaeda terrorist attacks  on the World Trade Center in New York  and the Pentagon in Washington using hijacked planes. "Saifullah Paracha's continued detention under martial law was deemed no longer necessary to protect against an ongoing significant threat to the security of the United States," Department of Defense said 

"The United States appreciates the willingness of Pakistan and other partners to support continued U.S. efforts aimed at responsibly reducing the detainee population and eventually closing the Guantanamo Bay facility," he added. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said: "We are delighted that a  citizen detained abroad is finally reunited with his family.

The ministry said it had implemented "a comprehensive inter-agency process" for the repatriation. Prior to Paracha's capture in Thailand, his son Uzair was arrested in New York and tried in . He was convicted of aiding and abetting terrorists and the 30-year sentence  was later overturned on new evidence and  sent back to Pakistan.

Saifullah Paracha, who was educated in the US, worked as a businessman in Pakistan and had business interests in the US, was reportedly lured to Thailand by an offer of a business opportunity and took advantage of it upon arrival.

One of his businesses was in the media sector and he  admitted to having approached al Qaeda boss Osama bin Laden publicly for interviews but denied having been  in clandestine contact with him, as alleged. Involvement in Al Qaeda. The oldest prisoner  at Guantánamo Bay required special treatment for heart problems.

The US government has been pressured by both human rights groups and US lawmakers to close the Guantánamo detention center, and an investigative body has been set up to examine those detained and determine if they can be released.

The board recommended Paracha's release last year and it took more than a year to organize the transfer to Pakistan. The Ministry of Defense did not say if any conditions were placed on his transfer to Pakistan.

Detainees sent back to countries like Saudi Arabia had gone through a rehabilitation program. .According to the Department of Defense, 35 detainees remain at Guantánamo Bay, three of whom have been sentenced by military courts and nine are on trial.