Fifth Guantanamo detainee gets sponsored to live in Canada
Last Updated: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 | 5:12 PM ET
CBC News
A fifth Guantanamo detainee has secured sponsorship from a Canadian church to resettle in Canada, the Canadian Council for Refugees says.
Maassoum Abdah Mouhammad, who has been detained at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 2002 is being sponsored by a United Church congregation in Toronto.
The 37-year-old Kurd from Syria joins four others who have had refugee sponsorships submitted on their behalf. The detainees, who have been cleared of terrorist charges, fear they will be persecuted if they return home.
"[Maassoum's] a person the [U.S.] government has expressed no interest in prosecuting for any crimes. He was not a soldier, he was not involved in terrorist activities," Matt O'Hara, his U.S. lawyer, told the Canadian Press.
Maassoum was living in Kabul looking for work and trying to find a wife when he left for Pakistan after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in the fall of 2001, the Canadian Council for Refugees said. He was later arrested by Pakistani officials.
"He was caught up in really a whole chain of events that put him in the wrong place at the wrong time and it's time for him to get out of prison. It's time for this suffering to stop and for him to go on as best he can with a normal life."
The new sponsorship application comes as the Canadian Council for Refugees called on the Canadian government to resettle "without delay" some of the detainees.
Other refugee sponsorships include:
- Djamel Ameziane, an Algerian detained at Guantanamo for seven years, sponsored by the Anglican Diocese of Montreal.
- Anwar Hassan, a Uighur from China, detained at Guantanamo for seven years, sponsored by a group of United Church congregations in Toronto.
- Two Uighurs from China, detained at Guantanamo for seven years, sponsored by the Catholic Diocese of Montreal.
U.S. President Barack Obama signed an executive order on Jan. 22 to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay within a year.
