Guantanamo detainee to be transferred to mental health facility in Saudi Arabia

CNN previously reported that al-Qahtani’s lawyers said he has a serious mental illness, battling schizophrenia, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his torture. They have waged a protracted legal battle over al-Qahtani’s repatriation to Saudi Arabia.

On Friday, the Periodic Review Board, a government entity established during the Obama administration to determine whether detainees at the center were guilty, recommended repatriating al-Qahtani to a mental health facility in Saudi Arabia.

The board “determined that the detainee’s continued law-of-war detention is no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the security of the United States,” according to public filings.

the board he said in a file posted on his website that it “acknowledges that the detainee presents some level of threat in light of his past activities and associations”, but the board believes that “the threat posed by the detainee can be adequately mitigated”.

“The Board understood that Saudi Arabia is able to provide comprehensive mental health care, and the Board noted Saudi Arabia’s ability to monitor the detainee after completion of the rehabilitation program. In addition, the Board considered the detainee’s significantly compromised mental health condition. and available family support. the final determination report said.

He is one of 39 detainees remaining at Guantanamo.  Once tortured, the prisoner's case is evidence of the larger political realities at play.

The board recommended certain conditions for al-Qahtani’s repatriation to Saudi Arabia, such as a “full set of security measures including monitoring and travel restrictions.”

The New York Times first reported the board’s recommendation.

Al-Qahatani’s lawyers, Shayana Kadidal and Luna Martinez from the Center for Constitutional Rights, said in a statement: “He belongs to a psychiatric facility in his home country, Saudi Arabia, not a prison.”

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“Despite the severity of his illness, Mohammed has never posed a risk to anyone but himself. In recent years, the voices in his head have increasingly told him to harm himself, doing things like swallowing glass. broken and not revealing it to his doctors, making his transfer out of Guantanamo urgent,” they said. “We are hopeful that Mohammed’s torment will ease when he is in the care of trusted psychiatrists who speak his native language, away from the scene of his torture and where he can receive vital support from his family. “.

CNN reported last month that at least five other detainees who had been held at Guantanamo for more than a decade had been released. The decision on his release came when the prison celebrated 20 years since it was inaugurated under the presidency of George W. Bush, a few months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
President Joe Biden has publicly said that wants to close the detention centerand the National Security Council is undergo a review of the facility “to determine the way forward,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said during a news conference last month.

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