FREE MAN

Oldest Guantanamo Bay Prisoner Freed After 18 Years

Saifullah Paracha, 75, was alleged to have conspired with al-Qaeda in the 9/11 attack, but was never charged with a crime.

A 75-year-old Pakistani man who authorities alleged was an al-Qaeda conspirator has been freed from Guantanamo Bay after 18 years. Saifullah Paracha was held in the US Naval detention facility in Cuba on suspicion he’d helped two of the al-Qaeda members who plotted the 9/11 attack. He was the oldest inmate at the camp and was never charged with a crime, according to London-based human rights group Reprieve. Paracha admitted to safeguarding $500,000, but says he didn’t know the conspirators were al-Qaeda and has denied any involvement in terroristic activity. He was captured in Thailand by the FBI in 2003 and will now be the first detainee to be transferred back to Pakistan since 2008. Guantanamo Bay had about 800 inmates at its peak, but currently holds 35 people, the US Department of Defense said.