The oldest prisoner of the US military prison, Guantanamo, has been released to his home in Pakistan, after almost two decades.
Saifullah Paracha, 75, was arrested two years after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, and accused of being an al-Qaeda sympathizer.
Paracha has been suspected of financing the jihadist group, but has always pleaded not guilty and has never been charged.
The US military prison in Cuba once held hundreds of suspects for these attacks.
“Saif Ullah Paracha, a Pakistani citizen, who has been detained in the Guantanamo prison, has reached Pakistan on October 29,” the Foreign Ministry of Pakistan said.
“We are happy that a Pakistani citizen, who has been detained abroad, has finally been reunited with his family,” the statement said.
Paracha was captured in July 2003 in Thailand, as part of an operation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Paracha, who studied in the United States, has been accused by US authorities of having contact with some of al-Qaeda’s most important figures, including then-leader Osama bin Laden.
After 14 months in an American prison in Afghanistan, he has been transferred to Guantanamo.
In this US military prison are kept those who the US describes as illegal fighters that it captured during its “war on terror”.
The US president, Joe Biden, is under pressure to release prisoners who have no charges and to initiate court proceedings against people accused of direct ties to Al-Qaeda.
There are currently 35 people in this prison.
