The US government declared on Wednesday the liberation of a Saudi engineer who was seized over two decades ago as a suspected Al-Qaeda associate in connection with the 9/11 terror attacks but was never accused.
Ghassan Al Sharbi, aged 48, was detained in March 2002 alongside an Al-Qaeda collaborator. He was targeted because he had attended a flight school with two Al-Qaeda hijackers involved in the 9/11 scheme and had studied at an aeronautical institution in Arizona.
The US military had contemplated bringing charges against Sharbi and several others, but they were dropped in 2008. However, he remained in the military prison at the US Navy’s base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as an enemy combatant, and his status remained uncertain. He was never charged, nor was he granted permission for release.
In February 2022, the Pentagon’s Periodic Review Board, responsible for reviewing petitions for release from Guantanamo detainees, ruled that the native of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, was eligible for release. The board stated that Sharbi did not hold any leadership or facilitator roles in Al-Qaeda and that he had been cooperative during his detention, despite being viewed as a hostile prisoner in previous years.
Furthermore, the board mentioned that Sharbi was suffering from unspecified physical and mental health problems.
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