Mother of Last Afghan at Guantánamo Pleads with Trump for Son's Release After 20 Years Without Charge

The mother of the last Afghan prisoner held at Guantánamo Bay is making a desperate plea to the Trump administration, demanding the release of her son after nearly two decades of detention without ever being formally charged. In an exclusive letter to The Intercept, Safora Yousufzai directly appeals to President Donald Trump, citing the deteriorating health and "advanced age" of her 60-year-old son, Mohammad Rahim. She argues his prolonged imprisonment has severely damaged his physical and psychological state, framing his continued confinement as a profound injustice.

This plea arrives in the immediate shadow of a high-profile prisoner release by the Afghan government. Last month, authorities freed 64-year-old American linguistics researcher Dennis Walter Coyle after over a year in Taliban captivity. The Trump administration publicly took credit for negotiating Coyle's return, explicitly stating its commitment to "ending unjust detentions overseas." Yousufzai's letter implicitly highlights this contradiction, placing direct pressure on the administration's stated principles by contrasting the swift diplomatic action for an American citizen with the indefinite, charge-less detention of an Afghan national.

The case spotlights the enduring legacy and unresolved human costs of the Guantánamo detention system. Rahim's status as the final Afghan detainee makes him a singular symbol of a broader, stalled closure process. His mother's public appeal forces a direct confrontation between the administration's proclaimed human rights posture and its ongoing detention practices, creating a potent test of its policy consistency and humanitarian rhetoric on the global stage.