Miami: Guantanamo Bay detainee Muhammad Bawazir of Yemeni origin, who was scheduled to depart for an undisclosed country, refused to board the plane.
He balked at the last minute, even though he has a history of hunger striking to protest his indefinite detention without trial. In recent days, Mr. Bwazir was ‘frightened’ to leave the prison and go to a country where he has no family, his lawyer, John Chandler, said.
“Can you imagine being there for 14 years and going to a plane where you could finally leave, and saying ‘No, take me back to my cell?’ ” said Mr Chandler.
“This is one of the saddest days of my life.”
The Yemeni detainee insisted on being sent to one of several countries where he has family since he couldn’t return to his homeland, reported New York Times.
The prisoner, who has been held at Guantanamo since he was 21 and is now 35, was deeply reluctant to start over in a place he did not know.
Bwazir remains on the list of prisoners awaiting transfer, but is now unlikely to leave the base in the near future.
Ian Moss, the chief of staff for the State Department’s office of Guantánamo Bay closure, confirmed the episode but would not say which country had agreed to take in Mr. Bwazir or whether the department was negotiating with it to take someone else instead. “I cannot discuss the details of Mr. Bwazir’s decision other than to say that, yes, he declined to accept an offer for resettlement in a third country,” he told New York Times.