New Delhi: In among his first acts as US president, Barack Obama has ordered the closure of the infamous Guantanamo bay detention centre.
He signed an executive order to shut it down within a year. Obama is expected to meet his top military commanders on Friday to discuss, among others, the rules for detention and interrogation of prisoners.
On Wednesday, he had issued orders putting off the trial of Guantanamo detainees until May. The facility now holds about 240 prisoners, all foreign suspects allegedly involved in the 9/11 attack.
A former Guantanamo detainee has welcomed the news. He is now pressing for the release of his sister, who he says has been unfairly held there.
"America should apologize to the prisoners who have been detained in Guantanamo prison and all the families of those detainees,” says former Guantanamo Bay detainee, Saad Iqbal Madni.
Madni was particularly concerned about the fate of a fellow Pakistani, prisoner Aafia Siddiqui, and asked Obama for her release.
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