The US Periodic Review Board (PRB) [official fact sheet] announced Friday that one of the longest-held detainees at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST backgrounder] may now be released to his home country of Saudi Arabia. Abdul Rahman Shalabi has been on a nine-year hunger strike and would be released [Miami Herald report] into a Saudi Arabian government rehabilitation program. Shalabi was detained in January 2002 and was accused of being a bodyguard for Osama Bin Laden. However, he was never formally charged. He began a hunger strike in 2005 and maintained the protest [PRB statement, PDF] longer than any other prisoner on the base. He wrote a letter [JURIST report] in 2009 detailing his strike and the criticizing conditions at the prison. The review board, which was created in 2011 as part of the effort to close Guantanamo, has been reevaluating numerous cases of prison previously identified as too dangerous to be released.

Many prisoners are being released from Guantanamo Bay as attempts are continuing to shut it down, creating a great deal of controversy regarding past practices at the prison. In May the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit decided [JURIST report] not to get involved, for the time being, in a case regarding whether the public should have access to video footage showing Guantanamo detainee Abu Wa’el Dhiab being force-fed. Dhiab was cleared for release by the Guantanamo Review Task Force [report, PDF] in 2009, but he remained at the prison until last year. In 2013, while still awaiting his release, he participated in a hunger strike with other inmates, which prompted guards to begin force-feeding them. In April a US government source revealed [JURIST report] that Shaker Aamer, a Saudi citizen Saudi citizen and former UK resident detained at Guantanamo, was expected to be released in June after recent calls from the UK government. In February the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied [JURIST report] Aamer and three other detainees their request for injunctive relief to stop prison authorities from force-feeding prisoners to end their hunger strike.