US Releases Guantánamo Bay’s Oldest Prisoner

Saifullah Paracha, in a 2019 photo, is seen sitting in a cellblock in Guantánamo Bay. Photo: Doug Mills / The New York Times

On Oct. 29, the US finalized the release of Saifullah Paracha, Guantanamo Bay’s oldest prisoner yet, to his home country of Pakistan.

Pakistan’s foreign minister first relayed the news in a statement issued that day. Furthermore, the Foreign Ministry affirmed it was “glad that a Pakistani citizen detained abroad is finally reunited with his family.” Later that day, the Department of Defense acknowledged “the willingness of Pakistan and other partners” to assist the US in its efforts to cut the number of detainees still in the camp. 

Overall, Paracha’s release is the result of months-long negotiations between the two countries and years of litigation surrounding his case.

Paracha, now 75-years-old, was held at Guantánamo for more than 18 years. The US alleged that Paracha had ties with high-ranking al-Qaeda members such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the “principal architect” of the 9/11 attacks, and Bin Laden himself. Specifically, the US claims Paracha helped Mohammed “facilitate financial transactions and propaganda” following the attacks, although he appeared to have no direct hand in the attacks themselves. As with most prisoners there, he was never officially charged.

For his part, Paracha maintains no terrorist involvement and plead ignorance to the al-Qaeda associations of Mohammed and others he did business with. Nevertheless, upon his arrival to Guantánamo Bay, he was given the status of an “enemy combatant” and would spend the next several years fighting unsuccessful legal battles. Last May, the US decided Paracha was no longer a threat to the country, and the process to release him ensued.

Paracha’s situation is peculiar, not only for his longevity at Guantánamo, but for his seemingly regular American identity. He was a businessman in New York during the 1970s, with stakes in media production and real estate, and still had family in the country up to his arrest. Thus, it may have been the elder Paracha’s relative entrenchment in American life that rendered him dangerous to the country for so many years. In fact, his son, Uzair Paracha, was accused of al-Qaeda sympathies and convicted in 2005 for attempting to help a terrorist into the US, but was similarly sent home to Pakistan in March 2020.

Dawn falls over Guantanamo Bay, enclosed by barbed wire; from 2013. Photo: Charles Dharapak / AP

Saifullah Paracha’s release from Guantánamo Bay is at least the fourth this year. More broadly, it represents a step forward in the Biden Administration’s promise to shut down the camp, which has been controversial from its very inception. Established in 2002 to hold suspected terrorists from mainly Afghanistan and Iraq, Guantánamo Bay has long been accused of violating human rights and international law. The use of torture forms the crux of these accusations, and was described at length in the Senate Torture Report, released in 2014. 

In January 2022, a group of UN experts slammed the camp as one of “unparalleled notoriety” and once again called on the US to close it once again. Human rights organizations, among them Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, concur with this view.

With Paracha’s release, there remain 35 prisoners at Guantánamo Bay: three convicted and the rest stuck in different appeals processes. As the midpoint of President Biden’s first term approaches, it will soon be seen whether the Administration can fulfill its promise to close the camp for good.