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Riyadh Says "More Than 100" Saudis Detained In Guantanamo
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| Washington has come under strong criticism abroad, particularly from its European allies, for its treatment of the detainees, particularly about prisoners being shackled, hooded and exposed to the elements. |
RIYADH, Jan. 28 (News Agencies) - Saudi Interior Minister, Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, said there were "more than 100" Saudis detained at a U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the United States is holding 158 Al-Qaeda suspects from the war in Afghanistan.
"The number of Saudis detained in Guantanamo is over 100," he told reporters Monday, January 28, before leaving Riyadh for Beirut to attend a conference of Arab interior ministers.
Saudi Arabia "is aware [of their detention], but we don't know the charges leveled at them except that they were captured in Afghanistan," Prince Nayef said.
"We want them [to be handed over] to interrogate them because they are subject to the kingdom's rules," he added.
In remarks published earlier Monday, Prince Nayef said that Riyadh was in contact with Washington over Saudis imprisoned at the Guantanamo, base but he did not give their number.
"Saudi Arabia is following up with U.S. authorities the issue of Saudi prisoners at Guantanamo base in Cuba,” he told the Saudi daily Al-Watan. “We hope there will be cooperation between us and the Americans in this regard."
If the United States hands them over to Saudi Arabia, "we will interrogate them and deal with them based on the outcome of the interrogations," he said.
An unspecified number of Saudis, who fought alongside Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network and the Taliban in Afghanistan, are believed to have been captured by the United
States, Pakistan and the new Afghan government.
Pakistan said two weeks ago that about 250 "Afghan Arabs," including 240 Saudis, were arrested by joint U.S.-Pakistani military teams at the border with Afghanistan. But Islamabad insisted all were handed over to Washington.
Meanwhile, lawyers acting for the alleged Australian Al-Qaeda fighter David Hicks plan to challenge his detention, a legal team spokesman said Tuesday, AFP reported.
Stephen Kenny, who is acting on Hicks' behalf, said legal action would be launched in a United States court to test the legality of the U.S. military's detention of his client.
"The basis of the planned legal action is we are seeking a determination in a U.S. court as to the legality of the detention of David Hicks," Kenny told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"Is he’s being detained under some law of the United States, or if he's being improperly detained, then we would hope the court may in fact order his release."
Kenny said the action would cite legal precedents set in the aftermath of World War II arising from the detention of German and Japanese civilians.
"We would like to know what the allegations are against Mr Hicks," he said.
U.S. President, George W. Bush's administration was divided Monday over whether the Geneva Convention applies to 158 suspected terrorists, captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but sought to ride out a storm of international criticism rather than treat them as prisoners of war.
Little change is expected from a debate now underway within the administration of President Bush over whether the men held as "unlawful combatants" should be accorded rights given captured soldiers under the Geneva Convention governing the treatment of war captives, said AFP.
While officials have said the captives held at Camp X-Ray on the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will not be treated as prisoners of war, the administration has not decided whether the convention applies to them.
"There are legal issues that have been brought to the president's attention, and those are being discussed," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said, adding that the convention must be interpreted "in a modern light."
Washington has come under strong criticism abroad, particularly from its European allies, for its treatment of the detainees, particularly about prisoners being shackled, hooded and exposed to the elements.
U.S. officials have flatly rejected calls for them to be considered prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention.
"They are not POWs. They will not be determined to be POWs," said Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, who visited the camp Sunday, January 27.
"It is a terribly dangerous thing from the standpoint of our military ... if we blur the distinction between lawful combatants and unlawful combatants."
On Monday, the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) joined the protests Monday over the U.S. treatment of the detainees.
The U.S. war on terror "must not be a pretext for a regression in rights," the president of the FIDH, Sidiki Kaba, said at an international conference in Cairo on terrorism and human rights.
"There are no 'illegal combatants' in international law" said Kaba, adding that "the United States must respect international law."
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