Swiss panel votes against taking Gitmo inmates

ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland should not take in any more detainees from the US Guantanamo Bay prison owing to heightened security concerns, a parliamentary security committee recommended in a 15-10 vote.
The Swiss cabinet is not obliged to accept the recommendation of the lower house panel, which cited safety fears after the attempted bombing of a US airliner on Christmas Day, a spokeswoman for parliament said on Tuesday.
No timetable had been set for the executive body to discuss the issue, said a cabinet spokesman.
In December, Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said Switzerland might accept more Guantanamo detainees and the canton of Geneva committed to taking in an Uzbek from the prison, where some of the inmates were kept for years without trial.
Committee president Jakob Buechler also cited Chinas opposition to Switzerland accepting two Uighur detainees, to be housed in the canton of Jura, the spokeswoman said, adding the vote did not affect the Uzbek in Geneva.
Uighurs are a Turkic-speaking Muslim people, many of whom chafe at Chinese controls on their religious and cultural traditions.
Beijing has demanded Uighurs held at Guantanamo be returned to China, but the US government has declined to comply with the request, saying they would face persecution in China.
When US President Barack Obama came into office last year he ordered a review of all detainees in Guantanamo to determine who could be freed and who would be referred for prosecution in criminal or military courts.
The US Pentagon said last week that an increasing number of former Guantanamo detainees were rejoining insurgent groups, some in countries like Yemen.
The Arabian country has become an increasing focus of anti-terrorism officials after a 23-year-old Nigerian man, who studied Arabic there, was accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airplane on Christmas Day.