¡¡¡¡KABUL, March 26 (Xinhuanet) -- A 25-year-old Afghan man who was proved
innocent after over one year of detention in an American military base at
Guantanamo Bay said he would seek compensation from the US government.
¡¡¡¡Saeed Abbasin, one of the 18 Afghans recently released by the US
authorities, said on Wednesday here that he hopes Americans could pay for his
missing taxicab and the time he fiddled in US military custody at the Cuban
island.
¡¡¡¡He was taxiing two passengers from Kabul to southeast Afghanistan's Khost
province when he was arrested by local security forces one year ago, said
Abbasin, a taxi driver of Khostprovince before his detention.
¡¡¡¡The Afghan government on Wednesday officially set free the former
Guantanamo prisoners handed over by the US authorities fourdays ago.
¡¡¡¡They were released from Guantanamo because investigations by Americans
proved their innocence, Afghan officials said.
¡¡¡¡"It was a nightmare for me," Abbasin said, "I lost everything, my car, my
work and my status in the society."
¡¡¡¡"I have no relations with the Taliban, I even hate them, I don't know for
what reason I was kept in prison for so long time," he told Xinhua after
receiving a certificate of innocence from the Afghan Interior Ministry.
¡¡¡¡Abbasin said one of his friends detained after his arrest was still held in
the Guantanamo prison.
¡¡¡¡"He is innocent too," he added.
¡¡¡¡Abbasin described his treatment by the US prison authorities as"nice," but
stopped short of telling details about the four interrogations he undertook in
the prison.
¡¡¡¡The ex-prisoners, most of them from southern provinces of the country, will
soon go home after receiving a minimum assistance for transportation from the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) office here, an ICRC spokesman
said.
¡¡¡¡About 680 Afghans had been so far transferred to the Guantanamoprison for
further interrogations after they were arrested by US forces in Afghanistan for
possible links with the al-Qaeda terrorist network and its Taliban ally.
¡¡¡¡Earlier in October, three Afghan prisoners, two of them in their eighties,
were released from Guantanamo. Enditem
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