Venezuela to return ex-Guantanamo prisoner to Uruguay

A former prisoner at the US Guantanamo Bay military center being held by Venezuela after going missing from Uruguay will be returned there Sunday, a key mediator said.

Jihad Diyab -- a 45-year-old Syrian who was resettled in Uruguay as a refugee in 2014 -- was jailed at the headquarters of the Venezuelan secret police after going off Montevideo's radar and apparently evading border controls.

Held in Guantanamo for 12 years without charge, Diyab was released in 2014 from the US-run military prison in Cuba to Uruguay, along with five other former inmates.

His disappearance from Uruguay sharpened the US debate over the push by US President Barack Obama's administration to resettle other detainees.

"He will arrive in the coming hours" in Uruguay, said Christian Mirza, an intermediary between the Uruguayan government and the Guantanamo refugees.

"But his arrival will be kept secret to protect his security. We think he is very vulnerable," Mirza added.

On Saturday, a US-based human rights activist, Andres Conteris, told AFP that three independent sources, who asked to remain anonymous said Diyab had begun a hunger strike after "learning that the foreign ministries of Venezuela and Uruguay negotiated his deportation to Uruguay."

Mirza indicated he had no information that Diyab was on a hunger strike and said that from what he knew Diyab was in good health.

He said Diyab would undergo a medical checkup when he returns to Uruguay.

Diyab was one of six former Guantanamo inmates who arrived in Uruguay in 2014 under an agreement between Montevideo and Washington.

He wants to be sent to Turkey or to another third country so that he could reunite with his family, a plan that is underway with the International Committee of the Red Cross.

"When he returns there will be talks with him to see what can be done and look at, with the foreign ministry and the Red Cross, the steps that need to be taken," said Mirza.

The mediator pointed out that as a refugee Diyab is allowed to leave Uruguay on condition that he is accepted for entry by another country.

The Venezuelan secret police holding Diyab have refused to allow visits by the activist Conteris or Diyab's US-based lawyer, Jon Eisenberg.

Eisenberg represents Diyab in a lawsuit filed against the US authorities for force-feeding prisoners on hunger strike in Guantanamo.

The Venezuelan authorities so far have not commented on the case.