17 Falsely Accused Guantanamo Detainees Returned to Afghanistan
    By Rahim Faiez
    The Associated Press

    Thursday 12 October 2006

    Kabul, Afghanistan - Sixteen Afghans and one Iranian released from years in captivity at Guantanamo Bay prison arrived in Afghanistan on Thursday, an Afghan official said, maintaining that "most" of the detainees had been falsely accused.

    The 16 Afghans appeared at a news conference alongside Sibghatullah Mujaddedi, head of Afghanistan's reconciliation commission, which assists with the release of detainees from the American detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the US prison at the Bagram military base north of Kabul.

    Mejadedi said many of the detainees, who are now free, had served up to four years in Guantanamo. He said "most" of the prisoners were innocent and had been turned in to the US military by other Afghans because of personal disputes.

    The Iranian, who also arrived in Afghanistan on Thursday, was handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross, he said.

    A US military spokesman in Kabul confirmed that 16 Afghans had been released from Guantanamo and turned over to the Afghan government. Lt. Marcelo Calero said he had no information about the Iranian prisoner.

    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."

    Another former prisoner, 20-year-old Habib Rahman, said he was arrested because he had a weapon in his home.

    "They told me, 'You are against us, you are anti-American and anti-government and you are fighting with us,'" said Rahman. "At that time in our area everyone had weapons. I was innocent and I hadn't participated in any fighting."

    Rahman said that he was treated harshly at Guantanamo, and was once kept awake for 38 hours while being questioned about ties to terrorists.

    "The last time they tortured me like that was four months ago," he said. "They were kicking us all the time, beating us with their hands."

    Sayed Sharif Yousufy, a spokesman for the Afghan reconciliation commission, last month said that between 90 and 110 Afghans were still at Guantanamo, meaning that between about 74 and 94 would still be there.

    One of the released prisoners, Sadir, who only goes by one name, said 74 Afghans remain in Guantanamo.