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Ex-Gitmo Qaeda suspect surrenders to Saudis

RIYADH — An former Guantanamo detainee who rejoined Al-Qaeda in Yemen after graduating from Saudi Arabia’s rehabilitation programme has turned himself in to Saudi authorities, the government said on Friday.

Jaber Jabran al-Faifi, about 35, contacted the Saudi government in recent weeks saying he wanted to return home and a handover was arranged through Yemen’s government, interior ministry spokesman General Mansour al-Turki said.

“He contacted our people during Ramadan and asked for their help to return to the kingdom,” Turki said.

“We led him step-by-step until he reached Yemeni security forces, based on our instructions,” he said.

Faifi was one of a group of former prisoners at the US Guantanamo prison who had been returned to Saudi Arabia for rehabilitation in December 2006 but then escaped to Yemen two years ago.

The group became a key part of the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, and began plotting attacks on Saudi as well as Yemeni targets.

Faifi had been held in the Guantanamo, Cuba US naval facility on accusations that he trained and fought with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in 2001.

The date and location of his capture are not clear in US Guantanamo documents.