Azerbaijani national is in list of prisoners to be released from Guantanamo

The list of prisoners to be released is posted in Arabic, Pashto and English throughout Guantanamo, said Navy Lieutenant Commander Brook DeWalt, a spokesman for the Guantanamo detention operation.

The latest list of 78 prisoners includes two Uzbeks sent to Ireland and a Yemeni who returned to his homeland on Saturday after 7 years of prison, as well as 26 other captives from Yemen, nine from Tunisia, seven from Algeria, four from Syria, three each from Libya and Saudi Arabia, two each from Uzbekistan, Egypt, the West Bank and Kuwait, and one each from Azerbaijan and Tajikistan.

The review team is examining each prisoner’s case to decide who will be held for trial and who can be sent home or resettled in other nations.

Some on the list are among the 30 ordered freed by U.S. courts but still awaiting transfer, including 13 Chinese Uighurs. The Pacific island nation of Palau has agreed to accept most of them.

President Barack Obama had set a January 22 deadline to shut the detention camp although Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that "it’s going to be tough" to meet the deadline.

Polad Sirajov graduated from the School of Economics at Erciyez University, Turkey and worked for the Turkish company operated in Russia.

 He left home in 2001 and never returned. His family was informed in January, 2002 that he was arrested together with Taliban members and sent to Guantanamo prison.

/APA/