The Obama administration plans to release a Guantanamo Bay prisoner who authorities said was Osama bin Laden’s bodyguard, a government review board said Friday.
Abdul Rahman Shalabi, 39, has been cleared by the Periodic Review Board to return to Saudi Arabia after a nine-year hunger strike protesting his confinement, The Associated Press reported.
The board, which was set up by the Obama administration in 2011, “acknowledges the detainee’s past terrorist-related activities,” but will send him to a Saudi rehabilitation program for Islamic radicals anyway, AP reported.
The al Qaeda associate’s lawyer said in April that his client, who was never officially charged, has been force-fed through a nasogastric tube for nine years.
There are 116 detainees at Guantanamo, 52 of whom have been cleared for release.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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