WASHINGTON — Two Pakistani brothers detained without charge at the American military prison in Guantanamo Bay were released to their home country after two decades, the Pentagon said.  

Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani, 55, and Mohammed Ahmed Ghulam Rabbani, 53, were captured in Karachi, Pakistan, in 2002 and held in CIA custody in Afghanistan before they were transferred to the offshore US prison in Cuba in 2004. 

The Department of Defense alleges Abdul Rabbani was an al-Qaeda facilitator who worked directly for self-proclaimed 9/11 planner Khaled Sheikh Mohammed and operated a safe house for the terrorist group in Pakistan. It accuses his younger brother, Mohammed Rabbani, of serving as a financial and travel facilitator for prominent al-Qaeda figures. 

The brothers, who were born in Saudi Arabia and are ethnically Burmese, were not charged with crimes during their nearly 20 years at Guantanamo. They were approved for transfer in 2021, with the interagency Periodic Review Board concluding their detention was no longer necessary “to protect against a continuing significant threat to the national security of the United States.”