Europe

Uruguay rejects demand by hunger-striking ex-Gitmo detainee

Associated Press
Published | Updated

A street vendor passes a sign that reads in Spanish "A place in the world for Jihad and his family" placed by demonstrators in downtown Montevideo, Uruguay, Friday, Sept. 16, 2016. Former Guantanamo detainee Abu Wa'el Dhiab from Syria, also called Jihad, is on a hunger strike, threatening to die if he is not allowed to reunite with his family elsewhere, after he was resettled in Uruguay. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico) (The Associated Press)

A street vendor passes a sign that reads in Spanish "A place in the world for Jihad and his family" placed by demonstrators in downtown Montevideo, Uruguay, Friday, Sept. 16, 2016. Former Guantanamo detainee Abu Wa'el Dhiab from Syria, also called Jihad, is on a hunger strike, threatening to die if he is not allowed to reunite with his family elsewhere, after he was resettled in Uruguay. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico) (The Associated Press)

Uruguay's government on Monday rejected an ultimatum by a former Guantanamo prisoner who is on a hunger strike demanding to leave the South American country.

Abu Wa'el Dhiab has been on a hunger strike for more than a month to press his demands to leave Uruguay, which took him in along with five other former Guantanamo prisoners in 2014. He wants to join his wife and children in Turkey or another nation.

Dhiab gave the government a Sunday deadline for a proposal to leave. But the government's liaison with the six resettled detainees said that there's nothing to offer him yet.

Cristian Mirza also said Dhiab's ultimatum on Friday "did not go well" with officials. He said Lebanon, Qatar and Turkey have rejected taking in Dhiab.