RIYADH (AFP)
Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz has given 2,700 dollars each to 55 Saudis who were formerly held at the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, a newspaper reported Saturday.
The ex-Guantanamo inmates who are still being held in Saudi Arabia received 10,000 riyals (nearly 2,700 dollars) each on the minister's orders after being released from jail on Tuesday to spend the upcoming Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr with their families, Okaz said.
They will return to jail after the Eid pending the completion of judicial procedures against them.
The 55 are among 93 Saudi ex-Guantanamo detainees repatriated by U.S. authorities. The rest have since been released from Saudi prisons.
Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the current Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, will start on October 12 or 13 depending on the sighting of a new moon.
Okaz said that Assistant Interior Minister Prince Mohammad bin Naif, the minister's son, has also offered to cover the wedding expenses of any former Saudi inmate of Guantanamo wishing to marry, including furniture for a new home.
Saudi Arabia, which has been battling suspected al-Qaeda militants since 2003, often helps former suspects financially in a bid to reintegrate them in society and encourage them to give up violence.
Thirty-seven Saudis remain incarcerated at the notorious prison camp in Cuba, which the United States set up after the September 11, 2001 attacks to hold prisoners rounded up in Afghanistan and elsewhere as part of its global anti-terror campaign.
Some 330 detainees of an original 800 are still being held without charge in Guantanamo. |
