Ex-inmate turned al-Qaida leader surrendersBy Ahmed Al-Haj - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Feb 17, 2009 21:11:31 EST
SAN’A, Yemen — A former Saudi Guantanamo Bay detainee who later went to Yemen to become an al-Qaida field commander has surrendered and was handed over to Saudi authorities on Tuesday, Yemen’s Interior Ministry said.
Abu al-Hareth Muhammad al-Oufi was one of two Saudi ex-Guantanamo detainees who re-emerged as al-Qaida operatives last month in a militant video released a day after President Barack Obama signed an executive order directing the closure of the prison at the U.S. naval base in Cuba within a year. Saudi Arabia also named al-Oufi on a recently released list of 85 most-wanted men who had fled abroad.
“He handed himself over the Yemeni authorities in the province of Shabwah, and Yemeni security authorities handed him over to the Saudi authorities,” a statement from the Yemeni Interior Ministry said.
Al-Oufi, who was released from Guantanamo in 2007, said in the video he went to Yemen after completing the Saudi government’s rehabilitation program for former Guantanamo inmates and other militants.
Saudi government officials confirmed he surrendered and was handed over to Saudi authorities in order to contact his family and return to his former rehabilitation center, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.
Rest of article at:
http://armytimes.com/news/2009/02/ap_qaida_surrender_gitmo_021709/%2e