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British Prime Minister Gordon Brown shook hands yesterday with terror suspects who had been locked up in Guantanamo Bay because of their alleged links to al Qaeda.
The surprise encounter came when Brown, who is on a four-day tour of Gulf states, visited a "correctional centre" in Saudi Arabia for Islamist extremists who are being "deradicalised".
He spoke to five men accused of supporting terrorism, including two who were held in Guantanamo Bay for six years. One told Brown he had been in the "wrong place at the wrong time" and fell in with extremists. He is now married, about to become a father and hopes for a career in computing.
The PM wished him good luck.
Another man said the rehabilitation project on the outskirts of the Saudi capital, Riyadh, was the "best thing that ever happened to me". He said: "It changed my ideology."
The terror sympathisers are kept in secure halfway houses with facilities such as gyms and swimming pools while imams give them lessons on moderate Islam.
When they are deemed safe, they are allowed to rejoin the community.
- INDEPENDENT
