The United States Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, has maintained that the country would have had to "execute" the inmates of the prison at the naval base of Guantanamo Bay, in Cuban territory, who were implicated in "crimes against American citizens" related to the September 11, 2001 attacks.
During a press conference in the city of Tampa, Florida, where he traveled after meeting with US military personnel deployed at the aforementioned base, the head of the Pentagon stressed that the 15 inmates who still remain in Guantanamo and have not been executed for their alleged participation in 9/11 should have already been executed.
According to figures released by the United States Government, by early 2025 only two of those 15 prisoners had received sentences from military tribunals, while judicial proceedings against another seven were still ongoing.
The Guantanamo prison was created by Washington after the 9/11 attacks and at its peak housed about 800 detainees. Suspected Islamist militants have remained there for long periods, sometimes without trial, which has generated a wave of criticism and accusations of torture by human rights organizations.
Although various US administrations have repeatedly studied the possibility of closing the penitentiary center, located in southeastern Cuba, they have encountered significant obstacles, including the absence of clear alternatives for relocating the prisoners to third countries.