- Title: USA-CIA/URUGUAY-GUANTANAMO Guantanamo prisoners resettled in Uruguay
- Date: 12th December 2014
- Summary: MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY (DECEMBER 12, 2014) (REUTERS) VIEW OF FORMER GUANTANAMO BAY INMATE OMAR MAHMOUD FARAJ FROM SYRIA ON BALCONY/HE GOES INSIDE FARAJ LOOKING OUT ON TO BALCONY WITH TOWEL COVERING HIS HEAD/ HE GOES INSIDE VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF APARTMENT BUILDING
- Embargoed: 27th December 2014 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Uruguay
- Country: Uruguay
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA3E5CW3UJTFO7UD0ZLVXTURUJ7
- Story Text: Two of the six former Guantanamo Bay inmates taken in by Uruguay were photographed on the balcony of a Montevideo apartment on Friday (December 12).
The two former inmates, the Syrian-born Omar Mahmoud Faraj and the Tunisian Adel Bin Muhammad El Ouerghi, were seen on their balcony drinking the tradition South American drink, Mate.
Uruguay, who took in the six detainees from the U.S. camp holding suspected terrorists, said it will treat them as "totally free men" who do not represent any security threat.
The men were flown to Uruguay for resettlement on Sunday, the latest step in a slow-moving push by U.S. President Barack Obama to close the widely-condemned prison where most detainees have never been charged or tried.
Uruguayan President Jose Mujica accepted a U.S. request to take some inmates from Guantanamo and he has said the men - four Syrians, a Tunisian and a Palestinian - can leave whenever they want or stay as long as they want.
Guantanamo was opened by former U.S. President George W. Bush, after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, to house terrorism suspects rounded up overseas.
Obama promised to shut the prison when he took office nearly six years ago, but has been unable to do so, partly because of obstacles posed by the U.S. Congress.
International rights group Reprieve, which represents several former Guantanamo inmates, says none of the six transferred to Uruguay had ever been charged and all had been cleared for release in 2009/10. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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