A member of the NDC legal team Abraham Amaliba has argued that one of government’s reasons for accepting former inmates of Guantanamo Bay was to correct wrongs perpetuated by the United States of America.

He opined that some of the detainees were wrongly detained as terrorist suspects therefore there was the need to right those wrong perceptions.

Ghana is playing host to two Yemen nationals detained at the Bay for 14 years accused of working for terrorist group Al-queada. They are among 17 others who in recent times have been cleared by the US of engaging in any terrorist act.

The two Yemeni men transferred to Ghana are Khalid Mohammed Salih al-Dhuby and Mahmmoud Omar Mohammed Bin Atef. Both were born in Saudi Arabia but are considered citizens of Yemen based on their family and tribal ties, according to military dossiers leaked by Pvt. Chelsea Manning.

A statement by Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister said the two would be allowed to resettle in Ghana for a period of two years. The statement also said government responded to calls to accommodate them due to grave humanitarian crises in Yemen.

Speaking on Joy FM/Multi TV current affair show, Newsfile Saturday, Abraham Amaliba insisted that the two “are not terrorists”.

They were only rounded up and made to go to detention camp for 14 years but the US could not find any act of terrorism against them, he explained.

“It is therefore wrong for someone to label thema as terrorists,” he asserted.

“What we are doing is righting the wrong” caused by the US, he stated.

"Don’t forget that what was being done at Guantanamo Bay was an illegality that was perpetuated against citizens of this world. What we are doing is rather righting the wrong that the US government perpetuated against these citizens of the world.

"We are rather accepting the two to integrate into society. So we cannot be a target as being claimed. We are not the ones who arrested them, we are not the ones who rounded them off, we are rather asking them to come so that we can give them their freedom.

"We are not the ones creating the problems as you find in the case of the US who arrested them without trial."

He prayed Ghanaians “deferred to the superior knowledge” of the security agency who are noted as one of the best in peacekeeping.

However, other panel members on the programme strongly spoke against the decision to accept the former prisoners.

Khalid Mohammed Salih al-Dhuby and Mahmmoud Omar Mohammed Bin Atef are already in Ghana but the panelists called on the government to send them away fearing the country would not be safe with their presence.

For instance, General Secretary of Convention People’s Party Nii Armah Akomfrah and NPP’s Ursula Ekuful-Owusu described the two as “toxic prisoners” whose presence would not help Ghana’s national interest.

 

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