MADRID 8 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
A group of United Nations experts this Wednesday asked the United States Government to release the Saudi Zain Abu Zubaida, who has been detained for almost 20 years without charge in the Guantánamo military prison, in Cuba.
“We have exceptionally requested a presidential pardon for Abu Zubaida due to the treatment he received while in detention and the lack of a trial against him since he was first arrested,” they said.
The experts have asked Washington to grant Zubaida “compensation” as well as “other reparation measures” in accordance with International Law, according to a statement published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“Zubaida suffers serious health problems, including injuries sustained during torture that are aggravated by the denial of medical care,” they noted, adding that “attorney-client communication has been seriously hampered.”
Zubaida was arrested in March 2002 in the Pakistani city of Faisalabad after the attacks of September 11, 2001. The United States Federal Investigation Agency (FBI) assumed his custody and he was transferred to Guantánamo, where he has remained detained without being no formal charges have been brought against him.
Zubaida, accused of being an alleged senior official in Al Qaeda’s operational command in Afghanistan, also went through several “black places” in foreign countries, including Lithuania and Poland, where it is known that he was tortured.
This comes after the United States authorities announced this Monday the transfer to Oman of more than a dozen Yemeni citizens held in Guantánamo, so the prison currently has 15 detainees, the smallest number in its history.