Former Guantanamo inmate marries in Uruguay

Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Adel bin Muhammad El Ouerghi looked out his apartment window Friday and smiled as he showed off his wedding ring to a handful of cheering onlookers below.The 50-year-old Tunisian married Samira Blanco, a 24-year-old Uruguayan who converted to Islam. The union was the first of two weddings being organised by men resettled in the South American country. Blanco said she liked her husband’s sincerity, and how he treated her 5-year-old son from a previous relationship.

Adel is humble, respectful, nice and very gentlemanly. He is everything that a woman can expect from a man.

Samira Blanco, who changed her first name from Rosa after converting

The two grooms and four other former detainees were resettled in Uruguay in December after spending nearly 13 years in Guantanamo. All were detained in Afghanistan in 2002 with alleged ties to al-Qaida. The men were never tried or convicted and the U.S. government decided to release them. They were invited to resettle in Uruguay by former President Jose Mujica, himself a prisoner for 13 years. Fatima Posadas, another Uruguayan woman who converted to Islam, will wed 34-year-old husband-to-be Omar Abdelhadi Faraj, from Syria, later today.

I don’t want him to be seen as a former prisoner, but rather a regular person.

Fatima Posadas, who changed her first name from Irina after converting

Americas