SANAA (AFP) — Yemen's Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Kurbi on Saturday called on the United States to hand over Yemenis held in the military detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
Kurbi said that Sanaa has "offered to try the detainees if any evidence was brought against them," the Saba state news agency quoted him as saying.
"Those who are convicted would be punished according to Yemeni law, and those proven innocent would be freed," he added.
Kurbi said that Washington is demanding guarantees from the Sanaa government that freed detainees would be placed under surveillance, while others would be kept behind bars in Yemen.
"This contradicts Yemen's constitution and laws," he was quoted as saying.
He did not say how many Yemenis are inmates of the notorious US detention centre, but a Yemeni rights group said in February that 104 Yemenis were still detained in Guantanamo.
Of the 260 detainees currently in Guantanamo, only around 20 have been charged with a crime. The US government plans to put only 60 to 80 of them on trial.
Rights groups have criticised the holding of suspects there for long periods without trial or access to regular courts.
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