Pakistani Saifullah Paracha, who was freed from Guantanamo Bay, rejoins his family.

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office stated on Saturday that Saifullah Paracha, a Pakistani national who had been held in the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base’s US military prison for the previous 18 years, had been freed and had arrived in Pakistan.
According to a release from the foreign ministry, “We are happy that a Pakistani citizen arrested abroad has finally been reunited with his family.”
According to the announcement, the ministry finished a drawn-out interagency procedure to permit Paracha’s 75-year-old return. He was reportedly the oldest prisoner at the detention facility, a US military jail that is housed inside the Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay.
In a tweet, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also informed the country of the development.
Paracha was detained in Bangkok in July 2003 on suspicion of having ties to al Qaeda and sent to Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan before being moved to Guantanamo Bay in 2004. He was never put on trial for a crime.
A businessman from Karachi, Paracha resided in the US and had property in New York City. He was allegedly an al-Qaeda facilitator who assisted two of the 9/11 plotters with a money transaction, according to US authorities.
Any connection to terrorism has been refuted by Paracha.
The US has long claimed that under the laws of war, it is permitted to detain people without trial for an endless period of time.
After the conviction of his son Uzair Paracha was reversed in 2018, the US government granted Paracha’s release in May 2021.
Months before Paracha’s arrest, his son was detained by US authorities on suspicion of assisting suspected militants in entering the country using forged passports.
The federal court in New York condemned him to 30 years in prison in 2005; however, a judge invalidated witness testimony in March 2020.
After the US government opted against requesting a new trial, Uzair Paracha, a graduate of Pakistan’s esteemed Institute of Business Administration, was transported back to Pakistan in 2021.
In 2003, Paracha was travelling to Thailand’s capital with his American business partner to have a meeting with Kmart’s purchasers.

Although Paracha did touch down in Bangkok, she never made it to the meeting place. Later, it was discovered that he had been stopped by an FBI-led operation en route to the rendezvous location. He was sent to the Afghan airbase of Bagram after being charged with aiding al-Qaida.

He was accused by US investigators of helping senior al-Qaida members conduct money transactions and attempting to bring explosives into the country, among other things.