The Daily Background

16 Afghans and 1 Iranian who had been falsely accused of crimes by the United States, wrongly held captive for up to four years, and tortured have been released. Some said that the other Afghans that the US is still holding there (estimated by one released prisoner to be between 70-100) are also innocent and falsely accused just as they were. AP article here.

One of the released prisoners, Sayed Mohammead Ali Shah, said he had been a delegate at the country’s first loya jirga, a council of leaders that helped establish the interim government in 2002 after the US-led invasion to oust the Taliban in 2001.

“For four years they put me in jail in Cuba for nothing,” said Shah, a doctor from the eastern province of Paktia whose hands shook from nervousness when he spoke.

“All these people (the other prisoners) and all those Afghans still in Cuba, they are innocent,” he told reporters. “All were arrested because of false reports, and the Americans, without investigating, they arrested innocent people and put them in jail for a long time.”

Phew. The Pentagon has itself esimated that 50% of the detainees at Gitmo were innocent- this was a year or two ago though and more people have been released.

Filed under: Human Rights, Z-TDB Blog