US releases 2 detainees from Guantanamo prison after 20 years

Two Pakistani brothers who were held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay military prison without charges for over two decades, have been released by the U.S. Abdul and Mohammed Rabbani were initially arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and transferred to U.S. custody after being accused of aiding al-Qaida.

The brothers alleged torture while in CIA custody before being transferred to Guantanamo, according to The Associated Press. However, U.S. military records describe the two as providing little intelligence of value or recanting statements made during interrogations on the grounds they were obtained by physical abuse.

Pakistani Sen. Mushtaq Ahmed Khan, the chairman of the human rights committee in the upper house of Pakistan’s parliament, tweeted that the two brothers had reached Islamabad airport.

Khan said the men were “innocently imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay for 21 years. There was no trial, no court proceedings, no charges against them. Congratulations on their release. Thank you Senate of Pakistan,” he wrote on Twitter.

The United States’ recent decision to release the brothers comes as part of its move towards shutting down the offshore military prison. Guantanamo Bay was set up at a naval base in Cuba during the George Bush administration following the 9/11 attacks, with officials at the time claiming it was intended to hold extremist suspects and would help deter further attacks.

But over the years, reports of prisoners being held without charge or trial, along with allegations of systematic torture, have led groups like Amnesty International to declare the detention center a “grave violation of human rights by the U.S. government.”

At its peak in 2003, the prison held around 600 people. The Pentagon says that 32 detainees remain in Guantanamo Bay today.