SIX YEMENI DETAINEES AT GUANTANAMO SENT HOME

WASHINGTON, Dec.20 (Saba) - The U.S. authorities has sent six
Yemeni detainees held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay
to Yemen.

Spokesman of Yemeni embassy in Washington Mohamed al-Basha told Saba
that the U.S. authorities released last Friday six Yemeni detainees
at Guantanamo Bay and delivered them last Saturday to the
Yemeni side.

He explained that delivery of these detainees came as a result of
the efforts exerted by Yemen in order to release all Yemeni
detainees at Guantanamo Bay and repatriate them to the homeland.

For his part, the political official in the embassy Khaled
al-Katheri said that the embassy is still intensifying its efforts
towards releasing the other Yemeni detainees via meeting the
American officials at all levels and continuous communication and
coordination with the detainees' lawyers.

Nearly 100 Yemenis remain at Guantanamo, the largest national group
by far and almost half the 239 detainees at the camp. More than a
dozen Yemenis have been cleared for return, and the vast majority
have never been charged, but in the more than seven years since
Guantanamo began receiving prisoners.

The U.S. has sent only 14 Yemenis home and only two in the past two
years.

BA