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European Parliament calls on European Union to accept Guantanamo prisoners

06 February 2009 11:15 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Viktoria Dementieva â€“ APA. Members of the European Parliament passed a resolution on Guantanamo prisoners. APA reports that the resolution calls the European Union member states to accept the inmates, if the United States requests. The voting was held in Strasbourg. 542 members of the European Parliament voted for and 55 against the resolution, 51 abstained. The resolution urges the United States to ensure human rights and fundamental freedoms of Guantanamo prisoners.

According to recent reports, there are 242 prisoners in Guantanamo. Pentagon said as the accusations against 62 prisoners accused of terrorist activity had not been proved, they were ready to release them. But some of them are pursued in their countries, therefore they may not be repatriated. 1 prisoner from Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Russia and Tajikistan, 10 from Algeria, 3 from Palestine, 9 from Syria, 10 from Tunis and 4 from Uzbekistan are also among the prisoners to be released.

Azerbaijani citizen Polad Sirajov, who is detained in Guantanamo, says he wants to live in Europe. APA reports quoting foreign news agencies that director of â€œReprieveâ€ UK human rights organization Clive Stafford Smith said 40 of Guantanamo prisoners wanted to live in Europe. Azerbaijani Polad Sirajov also wants to live in Europe. Smith says Denmark, Netherlands and Austria refused to accept Guantanamo prisoners, while Spain, Italy, France and Portugal are ready to accept them.

Only Azerbaijani prisoner in Guantanamo Sirajov graduated from the School of Economics of Erciyez University, Turkey and worked in the Turkish company operated in Russia for a time. He left home in 2001 and didnâ€™t return yet. His family was informed in January, 2002 that he was arrested together with Taliban members and taken to the Guantanamo prison. Representatives of the International Committee of Red Cross visited Polad Sirajov in Guantanamo for several times.

US President Barack Obama issued order to close the Guantanamo Prison. US government, which should make decision about the prisoners now, stated that it is ready to take the European leadersâ€™ opinion into account. The prisoners may serve rest term of sentence in the European countries. Three Uigur prisoners, who will be released, said they wished to live in Canada, but the Canadian government refused them in asylum. Spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry Jiang Yu said Beijing was against the handover of Uigur prisoners to the third countries. The Uigur prisoners can not be handed over to China because they will face with persecution there. However no countries showed willingness to receive those prisoners.