94 Yemenis in Guantanamo to be freed soon

Sana'a: The Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Saturday a total of 94 Yemeni Guantanamo detainees will be released to Yemen within three months.

He said his country had refused an offer from the former US administration to release the Yemeni men to Saudi Arabia for rehabilitation.

"We refused the offer to release the Yemenis to Saudi Arabia for rehabilitation, and we told them we would establish our own centre for rehabilitating them and helping them get rid of extremism and violence," said President Saleh in an annual conference for security leaders held in Sana'a yesterday.

"Now, within 60-90 days, 94 Yemeni detainees will be here among us," he said

Last week, the Yemeni government announced it has started to establish a special centre for receiving, re-qualifying and reintegrating its citizens in the Guantanamo detention when they are released.

On his part, the American ambassador to Sana'a Stephen Seche said that his government was in "constant conversation" with the Yemeni authorities on the Guantanamo issue because many of the detainees there are Yemeni citizens.

More than 100 of the 254 remaining detainees in Guantanamo are Yemenis.

"We are going to find a way to relocate them at some point. Certainly we would like to bring them back to Yemen and have them integrate themselves back into society with their families and make a future for themselves here," the ambassador Seche said in statements published on the America.gov website.