A Saudi man who has been a Guantanamo Bay detainee for 20 years for allegedly conspiring to take part in the Sept. 11 hijacking plot will soon be transferred back to his home country, the Pentagon announced Monday.
Mohammad Mani Ahmad al Qahtani, who is known as the “20th Hijacker,” is being returned on the condition that he will be subject to security and humane treatment, according to the Defense Department statement.
“The United States appreciates the willingness of Saudi Arabia and other partners to support ongoing U.S. efforts toward a deliberate and thorough process focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing of the Guantanamo Bay facility,” the Pentagon said.
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Al Qahtani, who has been detained at the U.S. base in Cuba since 2002, will be treated at a psychiatric facility in Saudi Arabia, according to NBC News.
Last June, a review board found it was “no longer necessary” to hold al Qahtani, as he did not pose “a significant threat” to U.S. national security.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin informed Congress last month of his intent to transfer al Qahtani given that the requirements for transfer were met with Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon said.
Previously released documents show that al Qahtani was supposed to be picked up by lead Sept. 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta to take part in the terror plot, but he was denied entry into the United States in August 2001, according to the Associated Press. He was later captured in Afghanistan and sent to Guantanamo Bay.
Al Qahtani’s lawyers argued for years that their client had displayed symptoms of schizophrenia since childhood. In 2002, an FBI official said he witnessed al Qahtani talking to nonexistent people and covering himself with a sheet for hours.
A lawyer for al Qahtani, who is now 46, told the New York Times that the transfer was “an extraordinary relief.”
“The next time the voices in his head tell him to swallow a mouthful of broken glass, he’ll be in a psychiatric facility, not a prison,” the lawyer commented.
Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, called al Qahtani a terrorist whose “life goal is to kill Americans” and condemned the decision to return him to Saudi Arabia.
“I believe he remains committed to jihad and the destruction of the United States,” the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said in a statement. “The decision to transfer al-Qahtani is not simply a lapse in judgment, it is a massive error which poses a serious risk to our national security and the security of our allies.”
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Al Qahtani will be the second Guantanamo Bay detainee released under the Biden administration. Thirty-eight detainees remain at the facility, 19 of whom are eligible for transfer. Two have been convicted in military commissions.
The announcement, though put into process last year, comes amid speculation that the Biden administration will press Saudi Arabia, among other countries, for more oil exports amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.
